Taken
by DanaGabrielleEspinosa
Summary: When Edward, Stefan and Elena are taken, Damon and Bella set out to find the people they love - or so they thought they loved them. Could feelings change over time? SET IN NEW MOON AND DAY AFTER SEASON1 FINALE FOR TVD UNIVERSE.
1. Missions

**This is a crossover between Twilight (set in New Moon), and The Vampire Diaries THE TV SHOW. THE CHARACTERS LOOK HOW THEY DO IN THE TV SHOW, AND THE PERSONALITIES AND EVERYTHING ELSE. I NEVER READ THE VAMPIRE DIARIES BOOKS, SO YEAH...**

**So if you've never seen the TV show, I suggest you don't read. Unless you've never read the books or seen the TV show, then it probably won't really make a difference. So just read anyways.**

**Also, OOC for some characters. Maybe some sexual content later on. We'll see. I'll warn you if there is, though.**

**Enjoy :)**

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Chapter 1

On April 21st, two people were both on a mission. Isabella Swan – she preferred Bella, though – had a much less strenuous mission. Her mission was to wake up and get to work. Ever since Edward had left her, things had been hard. Bella could barely get up in the morning. It was a lot easier for her to get up today, though. At least Charlie wasn't there breathing down her neck. It was Sunday, so he was out fishing with Billy, like he always was.

So anyway, Bella Swan's mission was almost complete. She was on the second part of her mission – driving. Bella was a good driver, but she was very sleepy lately and it was hard to keep focused on the road. Ever since Edward left, she didn't sleep much.

Bella pulled up to her work's parking lot. There was only one other car there – Mike Newton's. Bella was eighteen now, and Jacob had found his true love, his imprint. Ever since Jacob had imprinted on Leah Clearwater after Harry Clearwater died, Bella had no one to hang out with. The last time Jake had looked at her like he wanted her as a friend or more, was when he pulled her from the sea's choke-hold on her. He had looked into her brown eyes, his black one's glistening with love, and Bella had thought that there might have been hope for her.

But then he left her to see Sue Clearwater in the hospital, and he also so Leah. It was love at first sight – literally.

So now Bella was sluggishly walking to her work. Life had been boring ever since she cliff dived. She gave up on the rush of seeing Edward, and decided to just continue living her pointless life until death released her. She had tried killing herself, or at least thought about it, but she was far too scared to do that. She could never pull it off.

And it seemed pathetic to her, killing herself over someone who wanted nothing to do with her. So it was decided she stayed in Forks, with the constant reminder of her false love with Edward. False, she always had to remind herself.

Bella went into Newton's Outfitters and clocked in. She took a pack of gum from the side of the cash register and opened it up. Bella often stole things from the store, but no one ever noticed, and if they did, she always blamed it on someone else, or said someone bought a lot of that item. Mike's mother was far too lazy to check for herself to see how much gum, or cigarettes, or booze was bought.

Bella had also changed a lot after Jake imprinted. She took to drinking and smoking. Charlie didn't notice – he was always too busy with Sue and helping her get over the loss of Harry, the husband and best friend. And Bella was sure that even if Charlie did notice he wouldn't say anything. He was too scared to confront his teenage daughter about her issues. He never was good at talking about feelings.

"Hey, Bella."

Bella looked up to see Jessica Stanley standing next to her, smiling brightly.

Jessica came to Bella's work often. Bella guessed it was because of Mike.

"Hey, Jess," Bella said in a bored tone. Bella didn't like Jessica at all. She never really did. At least Bella used to make the effort to pretend to like her, but now she decided to not even try. What was the point?

"You look tired," Jessica noted.

Bella shrugged, popping a bubble of her gum.

"Is Mike around?" Jessica asked, standing on her tiptoes to look over Bella's head and scan the store.

Bella glared up at Jessica and all her ugly curly hair.

"Look, if you're not gonna buy anything, get out," Bella said harshly.

Jessica glared down at her. "Jeez, Bella. Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

Then Bella punched her.

Damon Salvatore was running through the Oregon forests. He had to find this girl – Isabella Swan. Damon's mission was of higher issue. Finding Isabella was life or death for him. It affected both of them, even if this Isabella didn't realize it.

Damon could remember the day he thought he had come so close to finding his love, and his brother. Stefan, his brother, and his girlfriend who Damon also loved, Elena, went missing. He had come home from...a little killing spree, and they were both gone. Stefan had been with Elena, he was sure of it. He had tried finding Elena's scent, but nothing was left.

Then Bonnie had come.

"Where the hell are they?" Damon had demanded in a hard voice, his icy eyes boring holes into her small body.

"You know I am a witch," Bonnie murmured calmly. "I know someone who you can go to. She will be able to help you."

"Who?" Damon yelled. "I need to find Elena! Uh, and Stefan."

Bonnie smirked. "There is a girl that could help you find the vampire you need for this job. The vampire you need is named Alice Cullen. The girl that can help you find her is named Isabella Swan. She lives in Forks, Washington."

Damon stared at her quizzically, his eyebrows furrowed.

"What can 'Alice' do?" he asked.

Bonnie sighed. "She can see the future. I think that would be very helpful, considering a loved one of her's is lost, too."

Damon groaned. "I seriously have no idea what the hell you're talking about."

"Alice Cullen's family member was taken by the same person who took Stefan and Elena. She can see the future, so she'd be able to help you get to Stefan and Elena."

"Okay..." Damon said slowly. "But where does this Isabella chick come in?"

"Isabella Swan has talents that not even she is aware of yet. Powers, I guess."

"And she's human?" Damon asked skeptically.

Bonnie nodded.

"What the fuck?" Damon shook his head. "So how will Isabella be able to find Alice?"

"Isabella used to be part of their family. She loved the vampire that has gone missing – Edward his name is. So if Isabella's future will affect Edward's, Alice will see it. And then you will be able to find them all."

Damon circled her. "Why do you want to help me? From what I remember, you hate me," Damon said, raising an eyebrow.

Bonnie stepped away from him. "I hate you, but Elena is my friend. And if this is the only way to get her back to Mystic Falls, then so be it."

Damon shrugged. "I really don't care if you're lying or not. It's worth a shot." He shrugged. "So I'll go to Forks,Washington – wherever the hell that is."

"It's a very remote place."

"How do you know all this?" Damon asked her.

"I told you. I'm a witch."

So that was how Damon had gotten on this little adventure. He had to find Isabella Swan. From what Damon had learned, Forks really wasn't that big. It wouldn't be hard. His travel from Mystic Falls to Oregon had taken a day. It was early morning now, and he was almost there. He had about a mile to go with the speed he was running at.

Finally, about half an hour later, Damon was in the town of Forks. He slowed to a walk once he started seeing humans. He stopped a man who was really large, with russet colored skin. He wore only ripped denim shorts.

_Weird country people, _Damon thought.

"Hey, dude!" Damon called.

The small Native American boy turned, looking at him quizically. The boy looked very young and lanky.

"Uh, yeah?" the boy said.

Damon smiled friendly, or at least he attempted to with his inhumanly white teeth.

"Do you know where I can find Isabella Swan?" he asked politely.

"Oh, Bella?"

"Uh, yes?" He decided that maybe she used 'Bella' as a nickname.

"Oh, she's working over at Newton's Outfitters. It's just up the road there."

"Hmm..." Damon murmured. "Thanks." He walked away faster than a regular person could.

Once he saw no humans were around, her ran up the road. He was in front of Newton's Outfitter's within seconds. He pushed the door open, greeted with a jingling bell.

"Hey, people!" Damon said to the three people that were in the room.

There was a middle-aged woman, a beautiful brunette girl, and some ugly girl with a bleeding nose. All of them looked up, confused.

"Can I help you?" Mrs. Newton asked the stranger at the door. The people of Forks generally knew everyone, and she had never seen this gorgeous man before.

"I'm looking for Bella Swan," Damon said, grinning.

The beautiful girl looked confused.

"Ugh, of course!" Jessica wailed with her bleeding nose. "Everyone wants stupid Bella!" Jessica stomped out with Mrs. Newton following behind her.

It was just Damon and Bella in the room now. Bella sighed, grabbed her coat and a pack of cigarettes, then left, passing by Damon. Damon followed her out.

"Are _you _Bella?" he called, following after her.

Bella leaned against a bus stop sign and lit up her cigarette.

"What's it to you?" she asked the weird guy. Bella didn't know where she was getting this burst of confidence, but she went with it.

Damon examined the girl he was pretty sure was Bella. She was beautiful. Her skin was ivory with a slight flush under her unharmed cheeks. Her hair was wavy and reddish brown. It went down to her waist in thick tendrils. Her eyes were big and brown, but very deep. They reminded him of Elena's.

"I was sent here to...retrieve you," Damon said in an amused voice.

Bella raised an eyebrow while blowing out a cloud of smoke.

"Well, you're just in time, 'cause I just got fired for punching that bitch in the face."

Damon laughed. "My lucky day."

Bella got up off the pole, dropping her cigarette to the moist ground and stomping on it. She then walked away.

"Um?" Damon followed after her, confused by this odd humans behavior. "Look, do you know Edward and Alice Cullen, or was the bitch witch messing with me?"

Bella stopped short. She felt the hole in her chest flare up. It ripped and tore at her lungs, like they were on fire. She took big gasps of breath, clutching her chest.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Damon said. He grabbed Bella's arm, holding her up because she was swaying. "So, I need your help."

Bella took a deep breath, yanking her arm away from him. "I don't even know who the fuck you are," Bella snapped. "Why should I help you?"

"Well, for starters, I'm Damon Salvatore, nice to fucking meet ya." He held his hand out, grinning despite the urgent time.

Bella just stared at his hand. He dropped it.

"This Edward guy – who I hear is your lover, or whatever – was kidnapped or some shit."

Bella stared at him in horror. Her heart fell. Edward, beautiful, perfect Edward, was in danger.

"And I need your help 'cause my...friend and brother were kidnapped by the same person...or vampire...or god knows what."

"You know about vampires?" Bella asked in surprise.

"This coming from the human," Damon said in amusement. "Obviously I know about vampires, considering that I am one."

Bella wasn't surprised at all. She'd seen enough – werewolves, vampires out to kill her. Nothing could phase her now.

"Then why aren't your eyes red, or gold?" she questioned.

Damon snorted. "Where the fuck did you get that from?"

Bella shook her head. "It's not important." She took a deep breath, burying her hands in her coat pockets. "So what do we have to do to get them back?" she asked Damon.

"We have to find Alice."

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	2. Clues

Chapter 2

Bella cocked her head to the side.

"Alice?" Bella asked Damon in confusion. She ignored the ache in the pit of her stomach, and the closing of her throat. Bella knew she had to get over this irrational reaction to the Cullens she had developed. "How are we going to find her?"

Damon furrowed his brows in confusion. "You," he said, as if it was obvious.

Bella stared at him.

"The witch – I mean, Bonnie – said you could find her."

Bella raised an eyebrow. "Maybe there's been a mistake, Damon." She sighed, looking down. "Edward and I...broke up, a few months ago. I have no clue where they are."

Damon growled in frustration. Time was being wasted, time that he could be saving Elena.

"I don't have a choice. You're all I have," he snarled. "Look, you know more about them than anyone else. I need you to help me."

"I will help you," Bella said. "I just don't know how much of a help I'll be to you."

Damon then remembered something else Bonnie had said.

"Are you aware that you have 'powers'?" he asked her.

Bonnie had said Bella had powers even she wasn't aware of.

Bella stared at him as if he had three heads. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Never mind, it's not important. We'll think about it later." Damon yanked her arm and towed her across the street into the woods and started running.

"Shit!" Bella yelled over the roar of the wind. "You could warn a girl before you did that, dude!"

Damon ignored her. He was focusing on finding a scent. He had to go to Bella's home, and he knew what she smelt like now, so he would find it easily. He knew he could have asked her, but...he was Damon, after all.

Bella had a very strong feeling of déjà vu. It seemed like just yesterday Edward was carrying Bella on his stone back from their meadow, thinking about kissing her while he ran.

Damon stopped in front of Bella's small home. He couldn't hear any heartbeats in the house, or any movement, so there was no one home. Did Bella even have anyone?

"How old are you?" Damon asked her as they walked up the porch steps to her house.

Bella grabbed the key under the eave and unlocked the door.

"Eighteen," she answered absentmindedly as she walked into her house.

Damon stood at the doorway.

Bella turned to stare at him.

"Why aren't you coming in?" she asked him.

"I can't come in unless you invite me in," he said.

She looked at him in interest, smirking as she folded her arms over her chest.

"Oh, so this is another one of those things that _your _kind of vampires do?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

Damon ground his teeth together. "Look, we don't have a lot of time. Just invite me in."

She glared at him. "Fine." She walked away. "Come on in," she called.

He sighed as he stepped over the threshold, smelling the air.

"I can smell vampire," he said. "That Edward guys scent is still fresh."

Bella lit up another cigarette. "What are we even doing here?"

"Clues," Damon said as he ran up to the room where Bella's scent was radiating from. He realized that this small yellow room must have been her room. He looked around for anything Edward might have left. Then, he smelt it. He ripped the floorboards from the floor and found pictures, plane tickets, and a CD.

"What the hell?" Bella screamed from the doorway. She ran over, yanking the things from his hands. "Where the fuck did you get all this?" she gasped, tears filling her eyes.

"Obviously under there," he said, rolling his eyes.

He snatched the photo from her hand. It was a picture of Bella standing next to a boy with reddish brown hair, extremely pale skin, and gold eyes.

"I'm guessing this is your Edward?" he asked, putting the picture in front of her face.

She nodded.

"Well that's a start," Damon mumbled. "I have his scent and what he looks like. Maybe it would be easier to trace him then."

"Where do we go now?"

Damon opened the plane tickets. They were to Jacksonville, Florida.

"Why would a vampire give you plane tickets to _Florida_? Out of all places. Wouldn't he burn up?"

Bella smiled. "Nope. The vampires I know glitter in the sunlight."

Damon stared at her. "That's the gayest thing I have ever heard."

Damon and Bella were at the Seattle airport now. They were going to use the tickets to try and find out if any of the workers knew where the Cullens had moved to.

Damon stood in front of a ticket desk, Bella standing to his right.

"Hello, Miss," Damon said politely.

The young woman looked up. She instantly felt attracted to him. His eyes were like blue flames, and his hair was almost black, hanging near his eyes. He was gorgeous.

"Uh, how can I help you?" she asked him, raising her chin.

"Could you check these tickets to see when they expire?" He handed her the tickets.

The woman scanned them then typed on her computer.

"Sir, these tickets have been canceled," the woman said.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Can you tell me _who _canceled it?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "Sorry, sir. It's a confidentiality rule."

Damon brought his face closer to her's. His eyes penetrated into her's. The woman felt her mind go blank. Her pupils moved in and out. Damon was compelling her.

Bella watched in confusion as Damon glared at her and the woman stared at him blankly with her mouth agape.

"Now, can you tell me who canceled the tickets?" he asked again.

"Carlisle Cullen," the woman said robotically.

"Do you know where Carlisle is living now?" he asked.

"If I check our phones old calls, I can see the caller ID."

"Do that now," Damon ordered.

"Yes, sir." The woman walked away, into a doorway behind the desk.

Bella stared at him in awe.

"Um, how the hell did you _do _that?" Bella yelled, grinning.

"It's something my kind of vampires can do. It's called compelling someone. Basically you can order them around and treat them like puppets. It's really fun."

Bella pursed her lips and nodded. "Cool."

The woman came back out, holding a sheet of paper.

"The call was placed from a 719 area code," the woman said, holding out the piece of paper.

Damon snatched it and shoved it in his leather jacket's pocket.

"Thank you," he said, smiling.

Damon and Bella walked out of the airport, standing in front of the sliding doors.

"The area code was 719, right?" Bella said.

Damon nodded.

"I'll Google it from my iPod." Bella pulled out her iTouch and googled the area code 719. "It says it's one of Colorado's."

Damon's eyebrows scrunched together. "Why would sparkling vampires go to a place full of deserts?"

Bella shrugged. "Desolate."

"What cities?" Damon asked.

"A lot," Bella answered.

Damon sighed, rubbing his hand down his face in frustration.

"We're going to Colorado then."

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**Yeah, I'm not really familiar with all the airport workings, so I just tried making it as realistic as possible. **

**REVIEW!**


	3. You Die

**I am so sorry for the long wait! You all probably want to kill me. Thankfully, the story isn't that far along so you won't have to reread a ton of chapters. This idea is still haunting me and begging me to continue, so I put off writing for inkpop and decided to finally continue this. **

**As always, have fun reading my piece of shit story ;)**

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Bella fiddled with Damon's car stereo, wrinkling her nose at the rap music that was currently playing.

Damon was getting frustrated. He growled, glaring at Bella. He didn't really need to watch the road and drive. This was why he loved being a vampire – he was extremely skilled. He also couldn't forget that he was good-looking.

"Can you stop?" Damon asked angrily.

Bella glanced over at him as if she just realized he was there. "Am I bothering you?"

"Very much so," he answered.

She pursed her lips, and then shrugged, continuing her song searching.

Damon growled and punched a hole through the stereo.

"Dude!" she gasped.

"I hate humans…." Damon mumbled to himself.

Bella glared at him and then flopped back into her seat. Damon and she were on their way to the first city in Colorado. She had left a very terse note to Charlie saying that she was sorry, sort of, and she'd be back soon…maybe. She wasn't sure how dangerous this trip was, but she didn't care. If this meant seeing Edward, then it was worth the risk of her life.

They would be taking pit stops along the way, but Bella hated long drives. She got anxious, also bored. She didn't enjoy boredom.

"Are we there yet?" she moaned.

"No, and don't bother asking in five minutes, because we won't be 'there yet' then, either."

She huffed, tapping her fingers against the car door.

The sound was loud to Damon's sensitive ears. Everything was loud to Damon. He could hear the angry conversation the husband and wife were having in the car in front of him. They were arguing over paint colors – green or white. Who cared, was Damon's opinion about paint colors.

"Tell me about yourself," Damon said to drown out all of the irritating sounds.

Bella glanced over at him. "Tell you what?"

"I don't know; stuff about you." Damon rolled his eyes at her stupidity.

Bella sat up in her seat, glad to have something to do. "Well…." She drew a blank. "There's really nothing much to me." She was depressed by this fact. Bella was boring, ordinary. She had always thought so. And after Edward left her, it was even more obvious how monotonous she was.

"You don't seem like the kind of person who has nothing inner to them."

Bella shrugged. She pulled a cigarette from her pocket and cranked open the window. She lit up, sucking in a deep breath of smoke. Bella didn't like smoking – she hated it. She only did it because the smoke was warm, and it filled up the hole in her chest.

"So were you always such a badass?" Damon asked her.

Bella glanced over at him, slightly amused. "Badass?" She snorted. "I'm nothing close to being badass. I'm more…softass."

Damon chuckled. "I've always been a badass."

"I never said you were one."

"Well I'm saying I'm one," he retorted. "You don't know me, so how would you know?"

Bella turned towards him. "So tell me about yourself."

Damon raised an eyebrow, grinning. "Really?"

Bella's stomach grew warm at the sight of his laugh lines at the corners of his sapphire eyes. She wanted to touch his face.

"Really," she assured him once she regained her composure over her girly parts.

"It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"Not as much as me," Damon said.

Bella waited.

Damon sighed, and then got into the long story of his life. He told her how he had been a young man during the Civil War times, living in Mystic Falls. He told her about his baby brother Stefan, and how, when they had been so young and naive, a beautiful woman named Katherine Pierce – her true name Katerina Petrova – came into their lives.

He told her how Katherine had seduced both him and Stefan, and how she turned out to be a vampire herself. She had given both Damon and Stefan her blood for a long time. He also explained how the people of Mystic Falls – the Secret Council – knew that there were many vampires in Mystic Falls. They gave Stefan vervain, a plant substance that is toxic to vampires, and weakens them for awhile. When Katherine drank Stefan's blood, as she always did to both Stefan and Damon, she was weakened.

Damon's father took Katherine, and locked her in the tomb below the church to be burned with the rest of the vampires. But before they had locked her, Damon and Stefan tried to save her. But they were shot, and both were killed. And they woke up as vampires, both thinking Katherine was dead when she really had had a plan the whole time. Damon and Stefan had been killed for nothing.

"So…" Bella interrupted, "if you drink some of a vampire's blood, and die with it in your system, you're a vampire?"

"No," Damon said. "If you die with it and then feed on human blood once you wake up, then you're a vampire."

"And you and Stefan did?"

"I didn't have much of a choice. Stefan forced me into it."

Bella's eyebrows pulled together, forming a crease. "What happens if you don't drink it?"

"Then you die."

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**Song for this chapter: Uprising by Muse **

**THE SONG CHANGES YOUR LIFE. :O**


	4. Strange

Bella and Damon had driven from Forks, Washington, back to Mystic Falls. Bella looked out the window as a sign that said, "Welcome to Mystic Falls," flashed passed Bella's window as Damon quickly sped down the wet road. It was raining quite heavily, something that Bella was used to. Damon, on the other hand, was just irritated by this.

"Come _on_!" Damon yelled at the car in front of him, beeping his horn. "We're on a freaking mission here!"

Bella smiled at the use of the word "mission" to describe what they were doing.

"Damon?" she said.

"Hmm?" he asked distractedly as he beeped his car horn.

"Why are we in Mystic Falls – your town?" she asked in confusion. "I thought we were going to Colorado?"

"We are, but I need you to meet a friend of mine first." He pursed his lips. "Well, she's not a friend, exactly. She actually hates me." Damon's lips quirked up and the laugh lines at the edges of his eyes came back.

Bella's heart and other areas reacted strongly to it, once again.

Damon chuckled. "You okay over there?"

Bella took a deep breath. "What are you talking about?"

"Your heart; I can hear it," he said smugly.

Bella felt herself blush and silently cursed her genetics. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I know, I'm shockingly handsome. It's okay; I get that reaction almost all of the time."

Bella glared at him. Arrogance was not a trait she particularly liked. "Why is it that all vampires seem to be good-looking with rocking bodies?"

Damon smirked. "When you're a vampire, you live for an eternity. What vampire in their right mind would want to change an ugly person and have to live with them for the rest of their existence?"

Bella pursed her lips and nodded. "True."

Damon's car finally stopped outside of a giant house. Bella's eyes widened in astonishment at the sight. The house looked so old, and beautiful. She opened the car door, stepping onto the mushy grass. Her old boots made a suction noise.

Damon was suddenly next to her and she gasped. She wondered when she'd get used to the whole vampire super speed thing. She should have been used to it by now.

"Is this where your friend lives?" she asked.

He shook his head and started walking towards the house without saying anything. Bella followed like a lost puppy, beginning to feel like her old self – a wimp, loser, and pushover. She pushed back those characteristics that the intimidating Damon seemed to bring out in her.

Damon opened the door without unlocking it. But why would a vampire need to lock it anyway? Duh. He carelessly threw his wet leather jacket onto the floor and peeled his soaked T-shirt off, continuing his cat-like walk down the long hallway that led into a gigantic living room with a high ceiling.

Bella looked at her reflection in the mirror and nearly gasped. Her brown hair was matted down from the rain, all frizzy and disgusting. Her cheeks were bright red, but her skin was a ghastly white. And her eyes looked dead, as they always did ever since _he _left.

She turned and gasped once again. After the gasp, she gaped. Damon stood in all of his inhuman glory without a shirt, his head cocked to the side as he analyzed her, as if she were a different species and he had never seen such a thing before.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asked in the strongest voice she could muster. She felt like toppling to the floor and kissing his chest all at once.

Suddenly he was nose-to-nose with her.

She jumped back but his arms wove around her back, forcing her against his oddly warm chest. It felt just like a human's skin would.

"Can you promise me something?" he asked in a low voice.

Bella's eyebrows pulled together. "Uh, I suppose."

"No bullshit with me, okay? Just…be yourself."

"I am being myself," Bella protested.

"No, be the Bella before your Edward left, because I have a feeling this isn't really _you._"

"What do you mean?" she asked, pushing his arms away from her.

He let them fall.

Bella walked around him, going into the living room, looking around with fascination. Damon liked watching this Isabella Swan. She was so peculiar. She didn't act like most humans. She had such an innocent exterior, but she wasn't really all that soft. She probably had been, but it seemed this Edward had destroyed any softness that she had had.

"I mean, stop being this badass when you're not."

Bella turned to face Damon with a face void of emotion. "Damon, there's something you have to realize."

He ran to her side, getting all up in her personal space purposefully.

Bella's little fingers traced the muscled lines on Damon's chest before shoving him away.

"Turning off your emotions is way better than being miserable, curled up in a ball crying." Bella could just see herself lying in the woods, numb to everything and everyone. She flinched at the memory.

After Jake had left her life, she had made a decision. She had no other choices in life besides death, or this, this girl who didn't give one shit about anyone, or anything. She chose the latter.

Damon smiled, but it was a cold smile. "I know what you're saying, because I do it all the time."

Bella raised an eyebrow in question.

He poured two glasses of alcohol for them both, handing one to her. He clank his glass with hers and threw it back.

"Vampires can drink?"

Damon smirked. "Among other things."

Bella threw her glass back, too. She winced at the taste, but the warmth it emitted was familiar, and welcomed.

"So what did you mean about doing that all the time?" she asked.

Damon was suddenly at the top of the stairs, leaning against the banister with the glass of alcohol in his hand. "You see, my kind of vampires can turn a sort of…switch on or off. If it's on, then you feel sympathy for humans, you learn to not let the 'monster' control you. And worst of all, you have _feelings_." Damon was next to her now, circling her like a shark. "But when you keep the switch off, you feel nothing for your prey, you don't care about anything. _All you want is blood_."

Damon's face was right in front of Bella's. He could hear her heart beating erratically, nervously. His hand swept back her long, wavy brown hair. It was nothing like Elena's. Bella's hair was thick, while Elena's was straight and thin. It surprised Damon that he liked the feel of Bella's hair better.

"And…do you keep this switch off?" Bella asked in a small voice.

Damon's nose nuzzled Bella's neck, breathing in her heady scent. He wondered if Bella's wonderful smelling blood was the reason this Edward stuck around in the beginning.

"What do you think?" Damon asked in a deep, sultry voice.

Bella scuttled around him, her back pressed against the wall. Bella wondered if this had all been a ploy to kill her. Maybe he wasn't trying to find Elena and his brother, Stefan, at all. Maybe he had lied. Maybe he just wanted to kill her.

"So you kill people?" she whispered.

Damon was in front of her. "Yes," he whispered back.

Bella ran. She shoved Damon out of her way and ran to the front door. He was suddenly there, glaring.

"You're really going to try and outrun a vampire? Really?" he asked.

Bella screamed and turned, running the opposite way. She went up the big stairs, and when she looked behind her, Damon was slowly walking up them, still shirtless, laughing at her.

Once she reached the top of the stairs, she went straight into a door in front of her. The door led to a hallway. She locked the door behind her, and then ran as fast as she could, hoping there wouldn't be any other ways into this room.

When she finally made it down the long, narrow hallway, she was in a bedroom. She locked the door behind her and fell back against the door, gasping. Her eyes jumped around the room, wide in fright. She jumped up from the floor, knowing from experience, that just because a few doors were locked, didn't mean she was safe from a vampire. James' face came to mind and she shivered.

She looked around the room, trying to find a phone. There was nothing. She stopped when she saw a desk. On the desk was a picture of a girl, and then next to that, was a picture of a boy and a girl that looked identical to the one in the old photo. She decided that the old photo must have been Katherine, and the picture of the boy and girl was Elena and Stefan.

Damon couldn't have been lying then, because this had to be Stefan's room, and Stefan wasn't here. And if Damon wanted her dead, he would have been in the room already, ripping her head off.

Bella took a deep breath and tried not to be afraid. She slowly walked over to the bedroom door she had locked. She was about to open it when a voice stopped her.

"What are you doing?"

Bella turned in shock to see Damon lounging calmly on the big bed in the room, still shirtless with his arms behind his head. He was smirking.

"I-I was going to let you in," she stuttered. Despite what she had decided before, she was still slightly afraid.

Damon sat up, head cocked. "Why are you afraid of me?"

Bella's eyebrows furrowed, because it should have been quite obvious why she was afraid. "You kill people, Damon."

"How the hell do you expect me to eat?" he demanded, sounding irritated.

"I-I don't know," she said, unable to control her hurriedly beating heart. "Animals?"

He was sitting at the desk in the room now, looking down at the pictures Bella had been looking at. "Animal blood isn't strong enough, and it doesn't taste nearly as good as humans." He looked back up at Bella, his shockingly light eyes penetrating into her dark ones. "Your Edward was an animal lover, like my brother?"

Bella nodded.

"So that's why you're afraid…." He was in front of her now. "I'm guessing all of his family were?"

She nodded again.

"Bella, you need to trust me. I'd never hurt you." Damon may have not cared about many people, but he cared for Bella as a friend. Bella and Damon were alike in many ways; the people they loved had fucked them over. Damon knew the feeling of being let down by loved ones.

"How can I trust you?" Bella whispered.

Damon rolled his eyes, tired of this. He grabbed Bella's shoulders and stared intensely into her eyes. His pupils moved in and out, his eyes wide as he began to compel her.

"You will not be afraid of me. You will trust me. I won't hurt you, understand?" he ordered.

Bella's eyebrows pulled together and she stared at him as if he were crazy.

"Damon, what the hell are you doing?" Bella demanded.

He snapped out of it and his eyes widened. He had compelled her. Why hadn't it worked?

"But I…." He sniffed her, searching for the scent of vervain. Nothing. "Are you wearing vervain?"

Bella became even more confused. "No," she said.

He grabbed her arm and towed her out of the room. "We have to go see my friend now."

"Who?" Bella asked in confusion.

"Bonnie Bennett."

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	5. New Views

As soon as Damon's car was pulling up to Bonnie's house, he was already at Bella's door, yanking her out. Bella stumbled as he pulled her along, nearly getting dragged through the mud that was accumulating due to the rain.

"Damon, why are you in such a hurry?" Bella demanded.

Damon pounded his fist on Bonnie's door. "Hey, witch!" Damon yelled through the wood.

Bonnie stood cautiously against the wall a few feet away from the front door. She didn't like to show it, but she was afraid of Damon. And with Elena gone, there was nothing stopping him from ripping her head off. But, he also needed help finding Elena and Stefan, so maybe he wouldn't kill her. He also needed to be invited in, so Bonnie straightened up and let the flow of her magic run through her veins. She liked the feel of strength, especially around Damon.

Bonnie put her hand to the doorknob and let her magic buzz on her fingertips, nearly heating the doorknob. She pulled the door open, removing all fear from her face and glaring at Damon. Her green eyes trailed over to the girl at his right. Bonnie's eyes widened.

Bonnie had been having a dream lately. The dream had starred a girl who she had never seen or met before. It was this girl at Damon's shoulder; the girl with a heart-shaped face, big brown eyes, and long, wavy brown hair. In Bonnie's dream, the girl would kill Elena.

Bonnie sent a jab of her magic at the girl, but the girl just stood there, looking confused. Bonnie's eyes widened further as the girl stood perfectly at ease, unharmed.

"Who are you?" Bonnie said slowly, glaring at the girl.

Bella felt uncomfortable under the girl's scrutiny. She looked up at Damon who nodded for her to say something. Bella looked back to the girl. "I'm Bella Swan. Damon said you were the one who said I could help him."

Bonnie's eyebrows pulled together further. "_You're _Bella?" she demanded.

Bella was annoyed now. "Yes, and who are you?"

Bonnie raised her chin. "I'm Bonnie Bennett…. I'm a witch."

"Look, I need you to invite me in. We need to talk about this." He gestured his hand to Bella as if she were deaf.

Damon was still clutching Bella's upper arm. She pushed his hand down, trying to get him to release her. He only grabbed on tighter.

"Why can't we talk here?" Bonnie asked Damon, still glaring.

Damon smirked. "You don't trust me?"

"Not at all," Bonnie replied, her face stoic.

Damon rolled his eyes. "I think you'd like to learn about her. She's…different."

"I told you that she'd have powers-"

"Yes, but she can't be compelled, Bonnie. I want to see if you're powers work on her," Damon explained. "Or maybe use some of your witch voodoo to find out what's wrong with her?"

Bonnie smirked, now beginning to like this Bella Swan. "Wrong? She's right! All humans should be immune to the compelling."

Damon rolled his eyes. "I don't have time for a lecture. Are you going to invite me in or not, because we have to go to Colorado."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow in question but dismissed it. She'd rather not be involved any more than this. She moved aside and said stiffly, "Come in."

Bella quickly walked in, happy to be out of the rain. Damon slowly put his foot on the threshold, testing it. He was still careful around Bonnie. He didn't trust her. The day before Elena and Stefan disappeared, the device Bonnie was supposed to deactivate nearly got him killed since she hadn't followed through. He didn't trust her; he never had. He had trusted Elena, and since she said to trust Bonnie, he did. And he was wrong to trust anyone. Damon shouldn't have trusted Elena. Damon was meant to trust no one.

And then, after his brother saved him from death, he kissed Elena, who was the girl Stefan loved. But then the next day, they were gone. He hadn't wanted to save someone in such a long time. He'd give anything to have Elena back.

"Did you hear about Elena's uncle John?" Bonnie asked as she walked into her living room.

"I haven't been in town, Bonnie," Damon said, irritated. She should have known this. "I was getting her, like you told me to."

Bonnie sat on her couch, letting the magic radiate around her. She would never trust Damon Salvatore.

"Well, he was murdered," she told him. "Jenna found his body on the kitchen floor, surrounded by a pool of blood. Someone chopped his fingers off. They stole his ring."

Bella's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why would anyone kill someone over a ring?"

Damon groaned. "I told you about the rings in the car, Bella." He held his hand over to Bella to show her his gaudy ring. "My ring protects me from the sun; humans that wear them come back to life if they're killed."

Bella ran her finger over the design on it, fascinated. She looked up at Bonnie. "Witches make them, right?"

Bonnie nodded.

"Could you make me one?" Bella asked.

Bonnie stared at her as if she were crazy. "Why would I make _you _a ring? I don't even know you."

Bella wanted to argue with her, but Damon said something before she could. "You don't need a ring, Bella. Bonnie here has been throwing her magic at you this entire time. Do you feel anything?"

Bella stood up now, her fists clenched. "You're trying to _hurt me_? I haven't done _anything _to you!"

"Not yet," Bonnie said, thinking of her recurring dream.

Bella and Damon were confused, but Bonnie said nothing more about it. She wasn't sure if this dream was real or not. What if it was just a dream? Bonnie was a witch, and witches were alive to protect humans. She couldn't kill an innocent girl, so she stopped the flow of magic that was currently crashing against Isabella Swan with no affect.

"Do you feel anything?" Damon repeated, irritated now.

Bella shook her head, glaring at Bonnie.

Damon looked to Bonnie now. "Is this her power?"

Bella was even more confused.

"I don't know," Bonnie said, sitting down. "I don't know that much, Damon."

Damon smiled without humor. "Well isn't that inconvenient?" He grabbed Bonnie by the neck and crashed her against the wall.

Bonnie screamed out, her eyes wide. She was too panicked to even think of a spell to save herself.

"You don't go and send me on some sort of hunt to find a girl and not help me. Your friend is missing too." He glared viciously at Bonnie, his light eyes piercing with old hatred. "_Try harder_," he hissed, his lips close to her ear.

"Damon!" Bella gasped. She ran over and started smacking him futilely. "Stop! Obviously she doesn't know anything!"

Damon looked down at Bella, the glare still in his eyes.

Bella gulped at his expression. "Would Elena want you to be doing this?"

His grip tightened around Bonnie's neck, and she was becoming lightheaded, black swarming around the edges of her vision.

"Elena's not here," he said coldly.

"Then stop because I'm telling you to. We're friends, aren't we?"

Damon's breath hitched. He stared into Bella's deep eyes, something unfathomable happening inside of him. When he looked at Bella – when he _really _looked at her – it was like that moment he saw Katherine for the first time all those years ago.

Damon begrudgingly released Bonnie's neck, still staring down at Bella's big eyes.

Bonnie gasped, choking and coughing on the floor. She looked up at Bella, still shaking in fright. _So much for showing no fear, _she thought, irritated.

"T-thank you," she whispered to Bella.

Bella took a deep breath and left the house quickly, back out into the rain. She had felt it too when her eyes locked with Damon's, and it frightened her more than anything she had ever faced before.

Damon glared at Bonnie once more, and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Bonnie called, slowly rising from the floor.

Damon turned to look at her.

Bonnie went over to a draw in the corner of the room and pulled out a ring identical to Damon's. She held it out to him.

Damon took it, looking at her in confusion. "What's this for?"

Bonnie took a deep breath, her neck throbbing. "When I had that vision of Isabella Swan being the key to finding Stefan and Elena…she was a vampire."

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	6. Captures

When Edward finally came to, the first thing he noted was that he was thirsty. That wasn't new, though. It seemed like he was always thirsty. Edward hadn't been knocked out in more than a hundred years – probably since his transformation into a vampire.

Edward's eyes cracked open and were met with darkness, but not too much that he couldn't see through the dark. He analyzed the ceiling above him, the old styled woodwork, and the feel of the cobblestone floor beneath him. The stone floor felt as cold as his skin. He smelt the air, and the smell was familiar, but his mind was still hazy from being knocked out, and he couldn't pinpoint where he was.

There was a cough and murmur from the other end of the room, and Edward was up in a flash. He was in a crouch, trying to use his enhanced sight to see into the darkness in front of him. Who knew how far back the room went?

"I'm not going to hurt you," a sick-sounding male voice said. There was a shuffling – slow footsteps, Edward noted.

"Who's there?" he asked cautiously. "What did you do to me?"

A boy about Edward's age came into view, holding his stomach. Behind him, Edward could hear a human heart beat, beating erratically. It reminded him of Bella, and his throat seized his unneeded breath until he gasped. He missed her, so much. He wished more than anything that it was her behind the injured boy's shoulder, but it wasn't. It was a girl with straight brown hair and brown eyes; similar to Bella, but not her at all.

And then, seeing the girl's face, something clicked inside his hazy brain. He remembered hunting in the well-populated woods outside of his and his family's house. Alice had forced him to hunt after weeks of staying in a ball in his room like a dead person – even though he technically was dead. He had been hunting when he saw a girl crying by a tree, shaking and sobbing. His instincts told him to run away, to not expose himself in the bright sunlight, but the brown, curly hair of the girl drew him to her.

He had been at the girl's side in a flash, his cold hand on her warm shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he had asked in his scratchy voice.

The girl had turned to Edward, shoving her face in his stomach. "Are you Edward?" she asked, not a hint of sadness in her voice now, and her crying had stopped. Edward read her thoughts, but all he heard was: _Is it him?_

Edward was confused, but he said, "Yes."

Suddenly, the girl had Edward pressed to a tree. She smiled up at him, her white fangs gleaming in the sunlight. She tightened her grip on his neck as veins began to pump underneath her once beautiful eyes. She looked like a demon. Edward had never seen anything like her before.

The girl grinned, as if she were playing a game. "Sorry, but I have to do this," she said in a soft, sweet voice.

Before Edward could have said a word, he felt a sharp jab in his side. He gasped, looking down to see a needle injecting something into him. He fell to the ground, and before he passed out, he saw the girl's face without the demonic veins and red eyes. She was beautiful.

The girl behind the boy's chest was _her_, despite the difference in her hair style. Her hair had been curly before. Edward ran forward, but the boy that had been in front of her, shielding her, crashed him to the floor. Edward's head knocked against the cobblestone floor, and he felt his cheek crack. He silently cursed to himself and tried to shove the boy off him, but the boy only pushed him back down with more force, causing the crack to widen.

"Who are you?" Edward demanded, hissing as he let his animalistic side take over.

"I'm not trying to hurt you!" the boy explained hurriedly. He released Edward's neck for effect. "But if you try and go for her again, I _will _kill you." He rose fluidly and offered Edward a hand.

Edward begrudgingly took it and stood, still cautious. The girl was at the boy's side now, clutching his hand.

"Who are you?" Edward asked again, glaring at the boy.

"I'm Stefan Salvatore," the boy said. He gestured to the girl at his side. "This is Elena Gilbert."

Edward glared at Elena, the girl who brought him here. "Why did you do this to me? What do you want?" Edward demanded through his teeth. "Is Bella here?" he asked, hopeful.

Elena shook her head hurriedly. "I didn't do this. The girl who took you was the one who took me. Her name's Katherine, and we look alike, but I'm not her. She's a vampire, and I'm human."

Edward's eyes went into slits. "Why did she bring us here?"

"We don't know," Stefan said. "She was in Elena's house two days ago. She killed Elena's uncle, and then kidnapped her. I followed after them, and I got injected with vervain. I don't know why they brought you here, but Katherine took you, too. You got injected with the vervain too. I can smell it."

Edward was confused. "What's vervain?"

Stefan was confused now. He glanced down to Elena who was also confused. Stefan looked back to Edward. "You're a vampire, aren't you?"

Edward nodded.

"Then you _should _know what vervain is."

"Yes, well, if you're a vampire, then why are you bleeding?" Edward pointed to where Stefan's hand was holding his injured stomach.

Stefan's eyebrows pulled together. "Because I got stabbed," he said in a voice filled with confusion. "You don't get hurt?" he asked.

Edward shook his head. "Not up until this vervain thing." Edward felt his cheek and was relieved to know it closed up and healed.

Elena stepped forward, curious. "Your cheek!" she gasped. "It just like…closed up." She felt Edward's face. "You're like marble," she said in wonder.

"All vampires are," Edward said slowly. "Up until now, I suppose."

"So…I guess there are two species of vampires," Stefan said in surprise.

"I guess so," Edward agreed. "But what is vervain?" he asked.

Stefan sat down, the exhaustion of the vervain and stab wound getting the better of him. He leaned against the cold, cobblestone floor, shutting his eyes. Wave after wave of pain and tiredness rolled over him. He wanted blood more than anything, but he knew that he'd never be able to control himself enough to have some of Elena's. She had offered countless times these past two days.

"Vervain is an herb that humans grow that vampires are powerless to. If it is put in a vampire's system, they're weakened. It lasts a few hours on my kind of vampires, but you've been out for two days. We were beginning to wonder if you had died. We wouldn't have been able to tell the difference, since your heart doesn't beat and you're ghastly pale and all."

"That girl…Katherine…" Edward lifted his T-shirt and examined the area where she had stabbed him with the needle. There was no mark.

"That's me," a whimsical voice giggled.

All three of them turned in surprise.

Katherine stood in the doorway of the dungeon-like room they were in. A pool of sunlight shined behind her, nearly blinding them.

Stefan looked down at his hand as a new pain began. He saw that the sunlight was touching his skin, and it was beginning to sizzle. He hissed, jumping back into the shadows. Katherine had taken his ring.

"Aw, Stefan, did you lose your ring?" she asked in faux shock. She pushed her lower lip out and walked farther into the room. "How unfortunate," she whispered into Stefan's ear.

_He looks exactly the same… _

Edward had nearly forgotten he could read minds. Katherine's voice in his head disturbed him. He didn't like it.

Katherine turned to Edward, grinning. She ran her hands along his arms. Edward pushed her hand away, glaring.

_Beautiful…. _Her voice echoed in Edward's head.

Edward growled at her. Katherine smiled. He was still taken aback by Katherine's beauty. Who knew something so beautiful could be so bad?

"Nu-uh, little boy," she teased. "I'm almost two hundred years older than you." The kind expression left her face and Edward was suddenly pressed against the wall, choking as her hand squeezed his neck. Her eyes filled with red, veins pumping the blood she had drank into them. "Don't test me." She released him and Edward fell to the ground, gagging.

Katherine turned to Stefan, crossing her arms over her chest. "You Salvatore boys sure like to ruin my plans, don't you? The plan was to kill Uncle John, kidnap Elena, bring her back here, and kidnap Edward Cullen." She shook her head at Stefan. "But you just had to go and be the knight in shining armor…as always." She picked up Stefan effortlessly, cradling his head to her chest. "You have to stop running after me, Stefan."

Stefan weakly tried to shove her away, but his pain was too great. "I wasn't chasing _you_," he spat. "I was chasing Elena."

Katherine's eyes went into slits and she shoved him to the floor. "You love me, Stefan." She walked to the sunlit door, leaning against it. "Don't forget it." She sighed. "Now, I need Edward and Elena to come with me."

"No!" Stefan shouted angrily.

Katherine glared, the demonic look returning to her face.

"We'll go," Elena said suddenly.

Edward forgot she was there. He was surprised by her voice.

Elena turned to Stefan, kneeling down to his level. "I'll be back," she whispered. "I'll be fine." She kissed him, and Edward had to look away.

Katherine rolled her eyes.

The three of them walked out into the sunlit hallways. Edward was beginning to recognize this place from paintings Carlisle had in his library. He just couldn't remember at the moment. Edward glanced down to see Elena staring at Edward in curiosity. Edward looked away awkwardly.

Elena found herself fascinated by Edward Cullen. She watched as beams of light bounced off his skin, sending rainbows throughout the room as they walked down the long, sunlit hallway to big double doors.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" Katherine said of Edward without turning. "I've never seen anything like it all my life."

Elena didn't respond, and neither did Edward. Katherine pushed the big double doors open, and suddenly Edward knew where they were.

Aro rose from his thrown, smiling giddily. He clapped his hands together. "Hello, my friends!"

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	7. To Be, or Not to Be

Bella felt awkward in the car with Damon. She could see nothing outside her car window through the darkness that seemed like a blanket over whatever town they were in now. Damon had told her – over one of the very few, and short conversations they had had since they left Bonnie's house – that they were going to stop at a motel.

Bella knew she didn't have feelings for Damon – she only knew him for a day. But, when they looked at each other, she couldn't help but feel…something. She had felt whole. Damon's blue eyes staring into her brown ones caused something inexplicable to happen to her. Something inside her shifted, like a covering. It felt like having Damon there with her, looking at her, talking to her, covered up the hole that Edward had left in her heart.

With Jacob, he had just been a distraction. He had just made her pain numb. But Damon could totally remove it from her mind, from her body. She felt good with Damon, like she had a purpose in life. He made her feel wanted, if that made sense. She couldn't believe she felt like this around someone she barely knew.

The car stopped, pushing Bella forward in her seat. She was broken from her reverie, as if Damon was yanking her out. She turned to look at him, annoyed.

"Maybe if you didn't drive so fast we wouldn't have to screech to a stop," she huffed.

Damon smirked. "Maybe if you wore a seatbelt you wouldn't be flying around in your seat like a ragdoll." And with that he got out of the car, slamming it shut behind him.

Damon could hear Bella's timid footsteps following behind him and his smirked widened mirthfully. He paid for a room for them both, and then they went up the steps to their room in the grimy motel. Damon didn't really mind the filth. They'd only be staying there until tomorrow morning. Damon didn't think he could sleep anyway. Despite the calm, uncaring manner he usually exuded onto everyone, he was a wreck inside.

It wasn't only Elena Damon was worried about. Damon was worried about his younger brother. He knew that as long as Stefan could, he would take care of Elena, so she was as safe as was possible. But him on the other hand…. Well, Damon knew that Stefan would put his life on the line for her, as he would for her too, but that didn't mean he was okay with it.

He may have hated his brother, but he didn't want him dead. That was the only logical reason that Damon could come up with for his mixed feelings for his brother.

Damon unlocked the door and stood back, allowing Bella in first. She pulled out a cigarette as she walked in, lighting it up. Damon looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but she didn't acknowledge his look. Bella was trying her hardest to look indifferent. Smoking helped keep her emotions at bay, she had learned.

Damon had his hand in his leather jacket's pocket. He fingered the ring Bonnie had given him, his eyebrows pulled together at the feel of it. He didn't know what Bonnie meant for him to do by giving him the ring for Bella. Was he supposed to change her?

"Bella," Damon said before he could stop himself.

She turned, waiting for him to say something. She hoped he'd explain these feelings. For some reason, she felt like Damon was a person who knew everything. She hoped beyond hope he'd know what to make of all this.

He didn't say _anything_, though.

Bella raised an eyebrow, stepping closer to him.

Damon backed away, clutching the ring tighter. _To change her, or not to change her?_

"Yes…?" she asked slowly. She smiled comfortingly.

Damon couldn't imagine Bella with fangs and eyes filled with human blood. He couldn't picture this slow, innocent human running at the speed of light and snapping people's necks.

"I have a question." Damon decided to get right to the point, as he usually did.

"Yes?" Bella said again. She turned to the small table in the room and stubbed her cigarette out. She faced Damon and suddenly he was in front of her, holding something so close to her face that her eyes blurred it out. She stepped back and squinted, looking at what he held. It was a ring. "Isn't that yours?" she asked.

He shook his head and held up his right hand, which had a ring on it already.

Bella was confused, as she always seemed to be. "So what's your question?"

He just let it out, "Do you want to be a vampire?"

Bella's eyes widened in surprise. She had dreamt of becoming a vampire for so long. She had imagined herself, strong and beautiful, running through the woods to find Edward. And when she found him, strong and sparkling and beautiful, he'd take her into his strong arms, and kiss her. They'd never have to stop loving each other. They'd have all of eternity.

Despite Bella's want to become a vampire, all she said was, "W-what?"

Damon rolled his light eyes. "Do you want to become a vampire?" he repeated, saying each word one at a time, as if he were talking to someone mentally inept.

Bella slowly took the ring from Damon and held it in her pointer finger and thumb. She examined the blue stone that she knew as a lapis lazuli, and the silver design of what looked like a bird. In the middle of the bird, where a shield was placed, was the letter_ B_.

"Where did you get this?" she whispered, looking up at him in wonder.

"From Bonnie," he replied. "She gave it to me. She said she had a sort of vision of you as a vampire."

Bella couldn't believe how uncaring he sounded. Was becoming a vampire really not a big deal to him at all? She looked down at the ring again.

"This is a big decision," she whispered, tracing the silver B with her pinkie tip.

Damon shrugged and walked away, pulling his leather jacket off.

Bella plopped down onto one of the two beds in the room. The mattress was stiff and the sheets looked dirty, but she didn't care about that at the moment. She looked back to Damon who was lounging on the other bed as he had been in the Salvatore house when she saw him in Stefan's room; hands behind his head, shirt off, and smirking. He was the picture of indifference.

"What do you think I should do?" she begged. She needed help. She was torn. She felt like now, now that Edward wasn't here, there was no point in living forever. What if he didn't want her even when she was a vampire? Then she'd just have a miserable, never-ending life.

"Personally, I think you should hold off on that," Damon told her as calmly as he could. He didn't want her to hear the urgency in his voice. He wanted nothing more than to take that ring from her and rewind time, never tell her that he had it. Just the thought of Bella being a vampire sickened him. He liked her how she was, beautiful, human, and alive.

Bella cocked her head to the side, though she was glad for his opinion. "Why?" she asked.

Damon sighed and looked away. He wished he could just compel her. Not being able to compel her made him feel…normal, like he was just talking with a friend. It was odd, to say the least. Damon hadn't had a friend since Elena, and she wasn't really a _friend._

Damon sat up, staring Bella down from his bed. "Why do you want to become a vampire?" he asked seriously.

Bella looked down at the ring that rested in her lap.

The thought, _magic, _went through her head at the sight of it.

She shrugged. "That's the problem," she looked back up at Damon, "I don't know if I do anymore."

Damon was suddenly in front of her on the bed, looking into her eyes intensely. It was a different look than the look he had when he compelled people. This look was filled with an emotion Bella couldn't identify. She was far too nervous to breathe, let alone to think.

"Don't do it," he whispered. His hand slowly went up to her cheek, caressing the soft, flushed skin. Damon loved the feel of her skin – so different than anything he had ever felt. "I did it for love, and look where that got me," he said.

Bella wanted to touch Damon too, but she was afraid. It wasn't the fear she had had when Damon had confessed that he killed people – and also enjoyed doing it – it was a fear that Bella couldn't really comprehend. She wanted Damon. It was irrational and stupid; she had only known him for a day. But she couldn't lie to herself. Something was happening between them, like an electric shock – quick and sharp to the point where you have to acknowledge it. Before you even realize it, though, you get the pain.

And Bella felt the pain now. What about Edward? She still loved him, didn't she?

Before she could make any move, whether it was to pull away or to lean into his inviting lips, _he _pulled away. The only thought that went through her mind as she watched him slowly shut his eyes and move away from her, was _Don't go!_

Damon stood, perfectly still with his eyes still shut.

"I'm sorry, Bella," he whispered almost inaudibly.

"For what?" she croaked. She felt irrational tears clog her throat, like the irrational feelings she had for Damon. She barely knew him. She felt the need to keep reminding herself this.

"I shouldn't be telling you what to do. I'm no better than Stefan." He opened his eyes. "What do you want?" he asked slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. The way he looked at her made it seem like her answer was the most important thing in the world to him.

Bella wrapped her arms around her waist. She wanted a cigarette, wanted the familiar feel of it in her hands, to give her an excuse to look away from Damon's penetrating gaze. She felt like she was in a whirlpool, unable to get out of the twisting, blue depths.

"I can't decide now," she whispered, hoping that was answer enough. She held the ring out to him, "But for now…no."

Damon smiled slightly and took the ring. He put it in his jean pocket. "There's no rush; remember that."

Bella nodded and smiled back.

He began to walk away, and then stopped. He looked at Bella. "Remember one more thing, Bella, please."

She nodded for him to continue.

"Don't change yourself to be with someone else. They should love you for whom and _what _you are."

Bella had wanted to change herself to be equal to Edward, but maybe that had been wrong of her.

"Is that why you wanted to be a vampire?" she asked quietly.

Damon smiled coldly and looked at his ring. "I wanted to be a vampire so I could be with Katherine forever." He looked back up at Bella. "Things don't always go as planned, Bella."

* * *

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	8. Crossbreed

Elena looked from Edward to the man who had greeted them. She couldn't fathom why Edward looked so terrified as he stared at the man. Elena looked at him, analyzing. He had shoulder length black hair, extremely pale skin, and bright red eyes. Elena's eyes widened as she realized he must have been Edward's kind of vampire.

"Old friend…" the vampire sighed, smiling slightly. He looked at Elena and she tensed. "And a new friend!" He looked up at Katherine who stood in front of them. "She is like a clone, Katerina."

"She's a doppelganger, Aro," Katherine said.

Aro nodded absently and walked soundlessly closer to Elena and Edward.

Elena, despite not knowing Edward at all, hid behind his back. She grabbed his sleeve and he stiffened, but didn't push her off him. His hand came behind him and he shielded her away from Aro's red stare.

"Aro," Edward said, "why did you bring us here?"

Aro sighed and stopped in front of Edward and Elena. "Why so many questions, friend?"

Edward's eyes went into a glare. "I deserve to know why you've kidnapped us."

Aro looked sincerely appalled. "Kidnapped?" He shook his head. "You're my friend, young Edward. I mean no harm to you."

Elena felt Edward's cold skin tighten under her hand. She looked up at him, staring in wonder at the light that shined from his pale neck. His skin was like silver. The only thing she could equate him to was an angel. He _was _protecting her, after all.

"If you're my friend, you'll tell me why I'm here," Edward said slowly, coldly.

Aro sighed and looked to Katherine for help. Katherine huffed and pushed her curly hair behind her shoulder. "I see no reason not to tell them," she finally said.

Aro smiled and clapped his hands together. "Delightful! I hate keeping secrets from friends." He shook his head as if he had been troubled by this secret he had been keeping from them. "How about you tell it, Katerina?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "It's quite a tedious story, and I don't believe I'm in the mood for storytelling." She began to walk away when Aro was suddenly in front of her, his red eyes hard and glaring.

Aro grabbed her neck in his hand and lifted her off the ground. Katherine choked and sputtered, clutching at Aro's pale hands.

"Remember, Miss Petrova, I'm protecting _you_. Youwork for _me_."

Katherine nodded and he released her, throwing her to the ground. Elena was shocked to see someone as old as Katherine to be treated that way. Finally there was someone who could stand up to her. It pleased Elena more than it should have to see Katherine on the ground, gasping for breath. But she deserved it, after everything she had done to Stefan and Damon.

Katherine, after regaining her composure, began her story. She told them that she had had a daughter when she still lived in Bulgaria, and because of it, her parents sent her away to England, and took her daughter away from her. In England she met a man named Claus, a vampire, who had interests in her.

He wanted Katherine, she hadn't known why. Another vampire who loved Katherine, named Trent, helped her to escape before Claus could take her. Katherine went to Trent's home, but his sister Rose wouldn't let her hide there. She was going to turn her in to Claus.

Katherine refused to be taken, and tried to take her own life by stabbing herself. But when Rose found her stabbed, she fed her her blood to heal her. Once Rose was out of the room, Katherine hung herself, and awoke as a vampire, because if you die with vampire blood in your system, you are brought back as a vampire.

Now that Claus had no more use for her as a vampire, Katherine ran away. She changed her name from Katerina Petrova to Katherine Pierce. She had been hiding from Claus ever since.

Elena stepped forward, her mouth and eyes wide. Edward grabbed her arm to stop her, but she shook him off. Katherine smiled at her smugly.

"So we're related," Elena stated.

Katherine nodded.

"And you're going to give me to Claus and kill me?"

Aro stepped forward now, shaking his head. "Ah, but here is where young Edward comes in."

Elena turned and looked to Edward who looked confused.

"We're using you as bait," Aro went on. "Claus…well, he's my brother."

Elena's eyes widened. "Then how…how are you both of two different vampire species?" she asked.

Aro smiled coldly. "My brother had loved a woman named Alliana Roma. She was part of a very powerful family; her family was leaders of their kingdom. We lived during the 1300s, you see. He wanted to marry her, and my parents wanted it. We were also leaders of our own kingdom. I was the younger brother, so it was important that Claus married first, to someone of high status.

"It turned out that the Roma family wasn't just a family. They were a vampire coven. They were all a mixture of my kind, and Katherine's kind of vampires. Alliana had been the mother of them all. She was of Katherine's kind. And her husband, Tymal, was of my kind of vampire. They had bred a new type of vampire, a mix of mine and Katherine's kind."

"But vampires can't have children," Elena interrupted.

"Yes, with other vampires of their kind. But you see…you can with two different species. I don't know how it works, but it does."

Elena still didn't see why she was here.

"My brother didn't know that Alliana was already married. She said Tymal was her brother. Alliana had been feeding my brother her blood for months. She planned to change him. He had no knowledge of her doings. She compelled him into forgetting each time she fed on him, and he fed on her.

"But one night, I went over to the Roma's palace, and I found Alliana feeding off my brother. Horrified I grabbed my sword and attacked. I had heard of demons like her. Farmers saw them at night, feeding off their livestock. I thought it had been old legends, untrue folklore. But then, when I saw Alliana feeding off my brother, I knew it was true.

"I tried to kill her, but she was too quick. She threw me across the room, and my sword landed in my brother's chest. I thought I had killed him. But a few hours later, he awoke. I tried to run. He was a demon now. I had been terrified. But Alliana stopped me. She wanted to kill me. She said I had seen too much, but Claus wouldn't allow her to. So, she got Tymal to change me.

"I am now like this, because of Claus. I wanted nothing more than to die through my three day transformation. When I awoke, as I am now, I killed every single one of Alliana and Tymal's children in that palace. And then I killed Alliana and Tymal. Claus hated me. He had loved Alliana, despite what she was.

"You and Katherine are related to Alliana. You both look exactly like her. And since Katherine is of Claus' kind of vampire, they can't crossbreed together, as he wanted. But I'm using you as bait. I'll make him think I'm letting him have you, but it's really just a trap. I'm going to kill him, once and for all."

Elena and Edward were horrified.

"But if it's just a trap, then why do we really have to do it?" she yelled.

Aro sighed, as if he were annoyed. "It was stupid of me to kill all of those children. They were a wonder. I want to recreate them. Using you is just easier, since you'll already be here."

Edward stepped forward. "But why do I have to be a part of this?" he questioned.

Aro glared at Edward now. "You continuously turn down my requests to join the Volturi. Now that I have you here, you cannot leave. I get what I want, you here and the mixed children, and Katherine gets what she wants, Claus dead."

Elena stepped back, gripping Edward's hand again. "I won't do it. I refuse."

Aro smiled sickeningly. "You have no choice." He nodded to Katherine.

"Jane?" Katherine called.

Edward's eyes widened. He gripped Elena's hand, pulling him behind her, but it was too late. Jane was suddenly in front of them. She smiled, and then Elena felt it. She screamed out, her eyes wide in pain and fear. Her eyes stared everywhere, but saw nothing.

"Make it stop!" she screamed. It felt like fire was coursing through her veins, like acid was ripping her brain to shreds. "Please, I'll do anything!"

"Jane, stop!" Edward yelled.

Jane just smiled wider, and Elena screamed louder.

"Anything?" Aro said.

"Yes!" Elena panted. "Please! Stop!"

Aro grinned. "That's enough, Jane."

The pain was suddenly gone, as fast as it had come. Elena collapsed to the floor, a sobbing, shaking mess at Edward's feet. He knelt down on the floor and picked her up, cradling her to his cold chest as if she were a child. Edward looked to Aro and Katherine.

"You're all disgusting," he hissed through clenched teeth.

Aro's face remained pleasant, as if he didn't care what Edward said. "Take them back to the dungeon, Katherine."

* * *

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	9. Crumbling

Katherine walked back down the long, sunlit corridor back to the big, double doors of the dungeon where Edward, Stefan and Elena were being kept. She pulled open the huge lock effortlessly, and then yanked the metal doors open. She turned to Elena and Edward, a smug smile on her face.

"You won't be kept in here any longer. Aro says you two are 'guests.' I don't necessarily agree with him, but I listen to him, because as of now, he owns me." Katherine wasn't pleased by that. She didn't like people controlling her, people having power over her. But she would find a way out of his power soon. She'd see to that.

"What about Stefan?" Elena asked, ignoring the way her stomach twisted at his name.

_I can't look at Stefan…_

Edward was surprised by Elena's thoughts that suddenly ran through his head, interrupting his own. Why wouldn't she want to see Stefan? She loved him, didn't she?

"He's not a guest here. We'll take care of him," Katherine said.

"Are you going to kill him?" Elena whispered, horrorstruck.

Katherine rolled her eyes, looking annoyed, as she usually did. "I don't answer to you. Right now, I answer to Aro. So do as I say and get in there for now. In a few hours someone will come and bring you to your rooms."

Elena didn't want to go. She stubbornly stood there. Edward, knowing that Elena's stubbornness would get her nowhere, grabbed her forearm and pulled her into the darkness of the dungeon. Elena tried to yank free of him, but Edward didn't release his iron grip until the big, metal doors were shut, and the lock was back in place. When he did, Elena shoved at his hard chest. He just stood there.

"Who do you think you are?" she demanded, breathing heavily.

Edward tried to decipher the jumble of thoughts that were running through Elena's head, but they were changing too frequently to be understood. Edward sighed at her. "Being uncooperative will get you nowhere, Elena."

"Don't talk to me! The last person I want to talk to is you!" she yelled.

Elena stormed away, not knowing where she was going. She couldn't see anything. And then she hit a wall, her nose throbbing.

Edward was at her side. He helped her up. "I know that this is a bad situation, but the only thing rebelling will do is get someone killed."

"I don't care if I'm killed!" Elena sobbed. The tears she had been holding back fell freely now, unable to be stopped. Each tear was like acid on her cheeks and pained her extremely. She didn't want to cry in front of this stranger who she was going to have to create mixed children with. She didn't want to be near Edward at all.

"You won't be killed," Edward said.

Elena stopped her loud sobbing and hiccupping. She looked through the darkness to where she knew Edward's face would be, her head cocked to the side in confusion. "Then who will?"

Edward shrugged. "Whoever it is you love; probably Stefan. He shouldn't have come here."

Elena slid down against the wall she had hit, her legs curled protectively to her chest. "I know he shouldn't have. He came to save me. Katherine was right; he _is _always trying to be the knight in shining armor." She covered her face with her hands, feeling a wave of guilt wash over her.

_I don't even love him, and he'll die trying to save me. I'm disgusting._

Edward was confused by her thoughts. He knelt down next to her, staring at her straight, brown hair. Gently, he caressed it. Elena reminded him of Bella. They were both brave and stubborn, with the same big brown eyes. But Edward couldn't deny that Elena was more beautiful than Bella. Despite his love for Bella, he thought Elena was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"It will all be okay, Elena," he whispered. "I promise."

Far in the corner of the long dungeon sat Stefan, bleeding and slowly getting weaker. He had heard everything that Aro and Katherine had told Elena and Edward. He was pretty sure he would die here, and, surprising himself, he was okay with that. As long as he saved Elena, he'd die happy.

* * *

Bella awoke to warmth on her skin. She groaned, as red invaded her closed eyes. It fascinated her that the sun's heat could make you see red, even with your eyes closed. She opened them and closed them immediately. The window across from her bed was pouring in so much sunlight. She hadn't seen so much sun in a long time, living in Forks and all.

She sat up in her bed, squinting. At first, she forgot where she was, and why she was there. But then she remembered. She gasped, suddenly wide awake, and looked around the dirty motel room. Damon wasn't there, and an ache resounded from her chest, and then throughout her body. She had a sudden fear that maybe he had left her. She would forever be afraid of people leaving her after Edward.

But then, she heard it – a shower. She slowly walked across the motel room's dirty, white carpet, her bare feet rising on their tiptoes to be as quiet as possible. She pushed the wood door open and was greeted by a cloud of steam from the shower. She walked farther into the bathroom and saw a shadow behind the white curtain. She guessed it was Damon.

It bothered her that he was showering instead of getting ready to go on the road again. She wanted to find out who took Edward, Elena and Stefan.

"Damon?" she called over the sound of the water.

Suddenly the curtain was pulled back, revealing Damon, wet and naked. "What?"

Bella's eyes widened and she felt her skin flush. She turned away, facing the open door with wide eyes and gasping breath. She tried to ignore the fact that her body reacted more strongly than it ever had to any man before, even Edward.

"Uh- I was, um, wondering…" She trailed off, taking a deep breath and turning to face Damon. She kept her eyes directly on his grinning face. Even his face did things to her. Those laugh lines…

"Yes?" he said mirthfully.

Bella glared at him. "Why are you showering?"

He looked surprised by her question. "Well, most people shower regularly."

Bella's glare deepened. "We're supposed to be going to Colorado to find out who kidnapped them, and you're _showering_?"

"I being smelly won't help anyone, and besides, we're already in Colorado."

Bella's eyes widened. "We are?"

Damon nodded and then looked Bella up and down. "You look like you need a shower too." He pulled the curtain all the way, revealing the rest of the shower. More steam rose from it. "Care to join me?" He smirked.

Bella looked down at her bare feet, feeling her cheeks redden further. She really wanted a shower, but the thought of showering with Damon made her so nervous that it was hard to breathe. She looked back up. "I'll pass."

Damon looked surprised. "Hmm, I can't think of a time a woman has ever said that to me."

"Well I'm glad to be part of a new experience of yours." She turned to walk away when he stopped her.

"Speaking of first experiences…" He turned the water off and pulled a towel around his waist, coming to a stop so close to Bella that she could see little specks of silver in his light blue eyes. "Are you a virgin, Miss Swan?"

Bella eyes widened in shock and embarrassment. "Th-that's none of your business, Damon," she stuttered, her eyes looking everywhere but at him.

He smirked. Bella was so cute and nervous. He could hear her little heart flying a mile a minute. He could practically feel the vibration on his bare chest. He wanted to be close to Bella; it surprised him. Damon didn't want to be close to anyone, until now. He wanted to wrap little Bella in his arms and just hold her there. He wanted to breathe in her scent, to possibly drink her blood. But he'd never hurt her. Drinking someone's blood could feel good for the person being drunk from, if you knew how to do it right. But he'd never do that to Bella, unless she wanted him to.

Damon let the tips of his fingers glide down her red cheek. He could also hear the blood pumping through her neck, pooling into her cheeks. The sound was comforting.

Bella met Damon's eyes. She didn't understand the expression there; she wasn't familiar to it.

"We're friends," Damon whispered hoarsely, his eyes piercing into hers. He had such an intense gaze, Bella noted. Butterflies flew all over the inside of her belly, bumping into her abdomen and making her want to pull Damon the rest of the way to her.

"Friends can ask that, can't they?" he asked, still in a whisper.

Bella gulped and she saw Damon's eyes flicker to her throat, and then back up to her eyes. "I suppose," she whispered back. She intended for her voice to sound strong and sure, but it cracked on the end.

Damon's fingertips slid from her cheek to her neck. He grazed them over the area of her jugular, and then to her prominent collarbones, letting them dip into the hollow there. She had a beautiful collarbone, Damon noted. It looked like it had been carved out by a sculptor.

"So…are you?" he asked, smiling slightly.

Bella regained some of her feistiness that she seemed to have been losing around Damon. He intimidated her. She hated to admit it, but he did.

"What do you think?" she whispered in his ear. She hoped he'd think she wasn't a virgin. It was embarrassing to be eighteen and still be a virgin, at least, in her eyes. Most of the kids at her school had at least done it once. Bella had only been kissed by one boy too. She felt like such a loser. She began to wonder how many people Damon had been with. It was obvious that _he _wasn't a virgin.

Damon leaned into Bella's neck now, breathing in her scent. He wanted to bite so badly. He felt his fangs pressing against his bottom lip, and he took a deep breath, repressing the animal in him for the first time in a long time. "I think…you are," he murmured.

Bella was silent. She didn't know what to say. But suddenly, she got an idea. She pushed Damon back slightly, so that they were face-to-face, noses touching. He looked at her in confusion. And then, she leaned forward, and pressed her mouth to his.

Damon felt like he had been zapped as her mouth came down onto his. He growled slightly, and yanked her closer to him.

Bella gasped as Damon yanked her closer. She felt her shirt getting wet from Damon's chest, but she didn't care. She gripped his shoulders tightly, her hand sliding into his wet, ink colored hair. Damon kissed down Bella's neck, lifting her onto his hips. Bella instinctually let her legs wrap around his waist, allowing him full access to her.

He carried her back into the dirty motel room, dropping her down onto the bed. He hovered over her, not kissing or touching her. He felt his fangs pop out, felt the veins pumping blood into his eyes. But he wouldn't bite her. He'd never harm Bella.

Bella stared up at his face in a mixture of wonder and horror. She had never seen anything like Damon. Her fingers grazed over the raised veins under his now blood-filled eyes. She was surprised that she wasn't afraid.

Damon licked his fangs, fighting back every instinct inside him to lean down and bite her neck. Bella pulled him back down to her, kissing him, despite the fangs. She felt them slowly disappear as she sucked on his lower lip.

Bella wanted Damon. She wanted to lose her virginity, and she knew someone as arrogant and uncaring as Damon would do it if she asked. She ground her hips into his and Damon snarled, pulling away from Bella's mouth. He stared at her with wide eyes, unbelieving that she was doing this, and that he was doing it too.

"What are you doing?" he whispered, his blue eyes wide.

Bella felt a part of her shrivel in embarrassment that he had pulled away, but she knew that he wanted her just as much as she wanted him. She could see it.

"I want you to do it. I want you to take my virginity away," Bella said as strongly as she could muster.

Damon jumped up from the bed in a blur and stood with pants on in the corner of the room. Bella could see his ring shining from the light from the window. She sat up and looked down at herself. Her white T-shirt was wet and see-through, revealing her bra. Her wavy hair was damp and sticking up in all different directions. She doubted she looked the least bit attractive, but she didn't care. She wanted it to be gone. She was tired of being the old, innocent Bella.

"I can't do that, Bella," he whispered nervously.

Bella was surprised. She had never heard Damon Salvatore nervous before. She rose from the bed, coming closer to him. "Why not?" she demanded.

His eyes looked down. He couldn't look at her; he was too afraid of what she'd see in his eyes. He didn't want her to see the truth.

He cared for Bella Swan, more than he had ever intended, and possibly more than he had ever cared for anyone. But he couldn't let her know that. He just couldn't. Damon couldn't stand another heartbreak. He knew Bella loved that Edward boy.

"Why would you want me to do that, Bella?" he asked, still staring at his bare feet. "You barely know me."

Bella was right in front of him now. "I might have only known you for a day, but I know you better than you think, Damon," she said.

Damon looked up. "You love Edward, not me."

Bella laughed with no humor. "Love? I doubt there's even such a thing. This isn't about love, Damon. I just want it over with. I'm tired of being _this_ Bella."

Damon was angered now. He clenched his fists. "What Bella? The Bella who's kind and gentle? The innocent Bella? The Bella that I…" He stopped. "You really have to stop hating yourself. You did nothing wrong. Edward was an idiot for leaving you."

Bella glared at him, tears seeping from her eyes. "He didn't want me, Damon! He said I was no good! I'm not good enough!" she sobbed out. She covered her face with her hands. "I'm not good enough for anyone." She collapsed to the floor, sobbing and shaking.

Damon was at her side, pulling her to his chest. He stuffed her face in his neck, hugging her so tightly that it might have hurt her. But Bella didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore.

"It's okay," he whispered into her hair. "You _are_ good enough, Bella."

Bella looked up at him, her big brown eyes bloodshot and dripping with tears. "Good enough for who?"

Damon hesitated, and then said, "For me. You're good enough for me."

Bella's crying came to an abrupt halt. She stared at him in horror. She pushed him away and stood. "I'm going to take a shower."

Damon stood up and tried to follow her. "Bella, please-"

And she shut the door before he could see her crumble again.

* * *

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**Song for this chapter (btw, I decided to do a song for each chapter :D) My Love by Sia**


	10. Honest Heart

Elena was dreaming. Her dream wasn't really a dream at all; it was more of a mixture of colors and faces of people she knew. She saw her parents' faces, Jeremy's, Aunt Jenna's, Stefan's, Damon's, and even Edward's. His face ghosted across her shut eyes. His eyes were two holes in his head, so dark. His skin was so pale and his hair, she had never seen anything like it. His hair was the color of pennies.

Elena awoke to the sound of the bolt on the dungeon doors being pushed up. Her eyes opened, seeing nothing but darkness. She felt coldness radiating from next to her, and knew that Edward must have stayed with her while she slept after about an hour of crying. She wondered where Stefan was in the dark dungeon, and why he hadn't come to her. Not that she wanted him near her. She couldn't be by him right now.

This time no light pooled into the darkness. A woman stood in the doorway of the dungeon. Elena looked up, analyzing her. Her eyes weren't gold or red, and she wasn't extremely pale. She was either human, or one of the other kinds of vampires.

"Hello," she greeted them. "I'm Gianna. I'll be taking Edward and Elena to their rooms."

Stefan rose to his feet, slumping down the wall. His whole body ached. He imagined that this was what a slow and painful death was like for humans. He breathed heavily, struggling to just stand upright. "What about me?" he ground out through the pain.

Elena looked to Stefan and quickly ran to his side. He slumped against her shoulder, his breath fanning out against her neck.

"The others will be dealing with you. I was ordered to come here and retrieve them, not you." She curled her finger, indicating for Edward and Elena to go to her.

_I'm going to die here, alone._

Edward instinctively looked over to Stefan. But of course Stefan hadn't said that aloud. Edward wished he could do something to ease Stefan's pain, both physical and emotional. He couldn't imagine what being locked in a dungeon, alone, starving, and in pain would be like. He'd try to get Aro to release him to at least a room.

Elena looked to Stefan. Tears welled in her raw eyes. She felt like hugging her to him and never letting him go. This was all her fault.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, clutching his face into her neck. She felt his tears against her skin. _I'm sorry I don't love you enough._

Edward felt awkward listening to her internal and external words. Both Stefan and Elena were filled with so much pain. It reminded him of himself.

"Come!" Gianna yelled, her voice no longer pleasant.

Elena quickly kissed Stefan, wondering if this would be the last time she'd get to kiss him. She rose to her feet, lips trembling, her throat constricting as she painfully tried to keep back her sobs. Gianna's face was stoic as Elena came to stand next to her. Elena looked into the pitch black dungeon, seeing nothing. Her tears fell down her cheeks simultaneously, and she didn't care. She let them fall. She couldn't find the will to care about anything.

Edward stepped out from the darkness. He was staring at Elena with an expression that she couldn't read. Elena would never stop being shocked by Edward's looks. Stefan and Damon were both beautiful, but Edward was just…ethereal.

"Come on!" Gianna caterwauled.

Elena jumped at the sound, shaking already as it was from everything that happened in these past two days. Edward's eyes went into slits as he walked the rest of the way to Gianna and Elena. Once he was there, Gianna stepped forward to shut the doors, and pull down the lock.

Elena looked over her shoulder, and standing at the edge of the shadows, was Stefan.

* * *

Gianna walked Edward and Elena to their rooms. They were on the fifth floor of what Aro had called the Volturi's home. It was actually more of a castle. The place was huge, styled as if it were from the times when Aro himself had been human. Elena and Edward's rooms were across the hall from each other, which made her uncomfortable, to say the least. Edward himself just made her uncomfortable. She didn't necessarily enjoy the thought of him being right across from her.

When Elena went into her room she saw that there was a big window and a balcony. A spark of hope ignited inside of her. She sprinted to the balcony doors and thrust them open. When she looked down at what was outside of the Volturi's palace, she saw only miles and miles of mountains and grass. Surrounding the castle was barbwire fences, and trotting along the ground were hundreds of wolves. But they weren't regular wolves, Elena noticed. They looked too big to be regular wolves. All the same, the thought of escaping through all of that was even scarier than the Volturi palace.

Elena looked around the room, trying to rid her mind of thoughts of Stefan locked up in the dungeon, bleeding and starving, and worst of all, alone. Elena wouldn't be of comfort to him anyway, she knew. Right now she needed to be in her own headspace. She tried to pretend that she was just on a vacation, and that this was just a hotel.

_A creepy, murderous hotel, _Elena's mental voice added quietly.

Elena sighed, harried. She wished for the millionth time that none of this had ever happened. She didn't know what she was going to do. Soon she'd be a vampire. Soon she'd have to create strange, mixed vampire children with Edward. The thought nearly made her vomit.

Elena fell back onto the huge bed in the center of the room. The sheets were red, which she found funny in a sick and twisted way. Of course vampires would pick red sheets. She shut her eyes, stuffing her head against the soft pillows. The sheets smelt like nothing, and she missed her own ones that smelt like the detergent that Aunt Jenna used. Finally she fell into a hard, deep sleep with the sound of wolf howls singing to her.

* * *

Elena awoke to the sound of knocking. She was suddenly upright, and her mind swam in confusion. She blinked, and realized that the room was brighter. She looked out the window and saw a bright sun shining across the wooden floor.

"Elena?" a woman's voice said through the heavy wooden door of the room. She had a British accent, Elena noticed. "May I come in?"

Elena didn't recognize the voice. She wondered why someone was asking if they could enter her room when she was the one being held prisoner in the place.

"Uh…" Elena mumbled. She looked at herself in the big mirror and nearly gasped at the sight of herself. She hadn't showered in nearly three days. "Sure," she said without stopping herself.

The door opened timidly, and a young, beautiful woman came in wearing an old-fashioned maid's uniform. Her hair was blond, her eyes gray and kind. The woman smiled at her and Elena's eyes widened once she saw the woman's neck. There was a large bite mark there, blood oozing down onto the white collar of her maid's uniform in rivulets.

"I'm Tinsley, ma'am," she said in calm voice. Elena wondered if she knew that blood was coming from her neck at a too-fast-rate. "I'll be your maid for your stay." She smiled again.

Elena slowly rose from her bed, trying to remain as calm as Tinsley seemed to be. "Tinsley, do you know how long I'll be staying here?"

Tinsley puckered her lips and looked behind Elena, as if she were pondering the thought. She looked back to her. "I'd reckon forever, ma'am."

Elena felt her lip tremble and bit it, nodding. "What do you want?"

"The master sent me here to feed, clothe, and bathe you." She smiled again. "May I?" She gestured to the door on the left of the room.

Elena's eyes wandered back to the bite mark. She couldn't stand it. She grabbed Tinsley's hand, pulling her into the bathroom. She knew that someone, probably Katherine, had compelled her into being so calm.

"What's going on?" Tinsley asked, as if she had no idea she was bleeding.

Elena opened the glass cabinet and pulled out a wash cloth. She ran it under hot water and then pressed it to Tinsley's neck. "You're bleeding, Tinsley," she said in a tone that suggested it should have been obvious.

Tinsley looked at herself in the cabinet's mirror doors with a blank expression and shrugged. "Master says to leave it. He says to let me die."

Elena took a deep breath, shaking her head. "Well you said you're my maid, so you'll listen to me. I don't want you to die."

Tinsley smiled once again. "How very kind of you, miss."

"Please, call me Elena," Elena murmured. "Hold this onto your neck," she instructed. She opened the cabinet and found gauze and tape and fixed up Tinsley's neck as best as she could.

Tinsley showed Elena to the shower and Elena took a much needed bath. She scrubbed at the dirt and dust on her from the dungeon. She stared unseeingly at Stefan's dried blood that was on her arms and shoulder. She tried to not think of him down there. It made her heart ache. She washed her hair, and then stepped out of the shower, refreshed.

Tinsley then opened the bag she had come into the room with. In the bag was a long, red gown. It was fitted at the top and then puffed out into sparkling silk at the waist. The dress touched the ground. It looked like something a princess would wear. Once Elena had the dress that Aro had instructed Tinsley to force Elena to wear, Tinsley did her hair. Elena's hair was straight as always, and pulled back at the temples in two braids, held back by a sparkling, ruby clip. As she stared in the mirror, she saw a stranger. This was not her.

"You look very beautiful, Elena," Tinsley said, smiling.

Elena grimaced.

"Would you like something to eat?"

Elena's eyes widened at the prospect of food. Her stomach growled rather voraciously, and she clutched her abdomen. She hadn't eaten in so long. "Yes, that would be good."

Elena ate a big breakfast and then was left to her own devices. Tinsley had been instructed by Aro to tell Elena that she was allowed to do as she pleased, but if she tried to escape or kill anyone, she'd be returned to the dungeon.

Elena walked through the huge castle. She stayed to the top floors, not wanting to run into anyone she had met in the room Katherine had taken her and Edward to. She began to wonder where and what Edward was doing. She also wondered about her family and Stefan, and also Damon. What was Damon doing about her disappearance? Nothing? It would be likely.

She was on the top floor. She tried all the doors, and they were all locked except one. She opened it and her eyes widened in astonishment. The room was like an indoor garden. There was a huge fountain in the center in the foliage-filled room. The fountain had an angel at the top of it, which Elena found awkward. She walked further into the room and looked out the window. She wondered if she'd die if she were to jump from there, landing onto the ground filled with guard wolves.

Just as she began to lift the lock of the window, someone cleared their throat. Elena whirled in surprise and fear to see Edward. He looked beautiful, as usual. His coppery hair was cleaner now, sticking up in a casual disarray. His eyes were still very dark, which contrasted strangely with his white skin. He wore different clothes, and looked like he had been taken care of by someone as well. He wore a white dress shirt and black pants. His black shoes shined from the sunlight, just like his skin.

"Contemplating suicide?" Edward said conversationally.

She ignored him. "What do you want? I told you I didn't want to see you." She turned back to the window, staring out at all of the grass behind the fence that she was trapped in.

"Yes," Edward said, suddenly next to her, "and I don't really want to listen to you, no offense."

Elena looked up at him. "What do you want?" she repeated.

Edward let his eyes run over her. She was beautiful. As soon as he saw Elena every time, that was the only thought that came to mind.

"You're the only one in this entire place worth talking to, besides your boyfriend, of course."

Elena looked out the window once again, her heart clenching at the mention of Stefan. "He's not really my boyfriend."

Edward leaned against the plant-covered wall. "I noticed."

Elena looked at him quizzically. "How is it you know so much, Edward? You knew what Jane was going to do to me in that room with Aro and Katherine, you knew I was contemplating suicide, and now you know that Stefan isn't really my boyfriend. What are you, a stalker?"

Edward's lips quirked up at the corner. "No, I'm not a stalker."

Elena waited.

Edward sighed, looking at the fountain. "I can read minds."

Elena suddenly started laughing. "That is the worst lie I have ever heard!"

"Think something random, then," Edward said, looking down at her.

Elena pursed her lips, her eyebrows raised. "Fine," she conceded. She shut her eyes and let her mind wander…

An image of Elena helping a woman that Elena's mind named as "Aunt Jenna" fold clothes came into Edward's mind. A boy with brown eyes and hair comes into the room. Elena's mind supplied the name "Jeremy."

"I'm going out!" Jeremy calls.

Elena runs after him. "No, Jer!" Elena says. "Let them find her on their own. She'll turn up." Elena's mind told Edward that she had been lying to him. Vicki was dead.

Edward opened his eyes once the memory stopped. He looked down to Elena who was looking at him expectantly. "Well?" she said.

"You were folding clothes with your Aunt Jenna. Jeremy said he was going to find Vicki, who was his girlfriend of sorts. You didn't approve of her. You thought she was a bad influence. Then you told him not to go. You lied and said she would turn up, but you knew she was already dead," Edward said automatically.

Elena stared at him in shock, her mouth hanging open. "That's…creepy."

He smiled slightly and turned to look out the window, beams of light bouncing off his skin and creating rainbows across Elena's face. "I know."

"How can you do that?" Elena asked in wonder. She seemed to always be in wonder when it came to Edward.

"My kind of vampires sometimes get special powers. Let's say you were an extremely strong human, like my adopted brother Emmett, then you'd be an extremely strong vampire."

"What do you mean 'adopted?'"

Elena continued asking all of the questions about Edward's past. She found herself overly interested. They sat on the fountain's edge, water exploding in big, sparkling bursts behind their heads.

Edward told Elena the stories of all of his family members, their powers, their personalities. Carlisle with his compassion, Esme with her motherly nature, Jasper with his ability to control moods, Rosalie with her shocking beauty, and Alice with her ability to see the future.

"Wait, if she can see the future, why didn't she see you being taken?" Elena interrupted.

Edward sighed, looking down at the fake grass covering the floor. "Well since Aro knows about her ability, he might have been playing with her blind spots. Alice only sees the future when someone makes a decision. Let's say Jasper made a decision to surprise her, then she'd know. Her visions are never definite, because the future isn't. It changes depending on everyone's decisions."

"That must be annoying," Elena said.

"Yeah," Edward laughed.

"Is your power annoying?" she asked him.

At Elena's question the buzz of people's internal voices grew louder. They were all a jumble. He didn't focus on them, pushing them back to their place in the back of his mind. "Yes," he answered honestly. "I'm never alone in my head."

Elena felt a little bad for Edward. Inside her head was the only solace she had. It was the only place she could be alone. To not even have that must have sucked. Then she remembered the first time she had met Edward, when he awoke in the dungeon. She had been so scared of him, when he wasn't really scary at all. He was actually sort of nice. She remembered him asking Stefan and her if "Bella" was there.

"Edward?" she said, breaking the silence.

He looked up. "Yes?"

Her eyebrows pulled together. "Who's Bella?"

His face snapped like a rubber band. It went from open and kind to blank and desolate. He looked away, his hands clenching into fists on his lap. "She's no one."

"You know I don't believe that," Elena said. She hesitantly put her hand on his shoulder. He looked at her in surprise. "Come on, tell me," she urged in a soft voice.

Edward continued staring at her for more time than was appropriate and then looked away, clearing his burning throat. He was so thirsty. "She's a human."

"How do you know her?" Elena asked curiously.

Edward shut his eyes as the pain began to flow through him, starting from his chest and spreading through his entire body. He could see Bella staring at him with her big, child-like eyes in disbelief as he lied to her, telling her he didn't love her. But she had accepted it so easily. He couldn't believe she would have believed him. He thought it would take hours of convincing, that she'd fight. But he saw in her eyes that she had accepted it as easily as he had said it. He knew she believed the lie, and had never really believed the truth.

"She lived in the old town my family and I were residing in – Forks, Washington. We met at school and…she was different. Bella is so different than any other human I have ever met. She's so smart and observant and beautiful." He shook his head, his eyes still shut. He was focusing on the image of her in his head, drinking it in. "I loved her."

"Loved?" Elena whispered. She felt like she needed to be quiet.

Edward opened his eyes and looked to Elena. "I can't love her."

Elena was confused. "Why not?"

"Because she wanted to become what I am," Edward said. "I can't let her waste her life for me. She needs to move on."

Elena was silent for awhile, and then nodded. "I get it. Humanity is precious. I don't know why she'd easily give that up," Elena said. She had thought about being a vampire a lot. She knew if she were to stay with Stefan, she'd eventually have to. But she didn't _want _to be a vampire. To her, becoming a vampire was a curse.

Edward smiled coldly, his eyes faraway. "Yes, but…she doesn't seem to think so." He rubbed his hands over his face. When thinking of Bella, he always started to lose himself, to let himself sink back into the dark hole of depression he had been living in for months. He was trying to break out from it. "Bella and I aren't good for each other," he went on. "We need each other like drugs. When you love someone, you shouldn't have to always need them, and feel useless without them. You should be able to stand on your own as well as with them." Edward looked up at Elena. "May I ask you something?"

Elena analyzed his face. He looked so broken, like a man who lost everything in his life that mattered. He probably had. "Of course," Elena said.

Edward rose from his seat at the fountain and offered her his hand. She took it reluctantly and they walked down the sunlit corridors again. Rainbows bounced from Edward's skin, shining everywhere.

"I told you I can read minds," Edward began. He pushed open the big door to the hallway and they were heading down the stairs now, all light gone, the rainbows quenched. "And I've been reading yours."

Elena felt her heart jump at that. He had been inside her head without her even knowing. It was unnerving.

"My question is about you and Stefan." He looked down at her as she looked at him. "Why don't you love him anymore?" Edward asked in genuine curiosity.

Elena looked away from his dark eyes, staring at her red silk dress as it brushed along the carpeted floor. "You'll think I'm…a bitch," Elena whispered.

Edward smiled crookedly. "I doubt that."

Elena let go of Edward's hand and pushed open one of the doors in the stairwell, walking back into the sunlit hallway. Edward followed behind her, his footsteps ghostly compared to Elena's loud ones from her heels.

Elena sighed and leaned against the window at the end of the hall. She stared at the clouds as they slowly moved across the blue sky. "Ever since I found out about Katherine looking like me…it hasn't been the same."

Edward slowly walked up to her side, his brow furrowed as he tried to understand. He couldn't even understand it in her head.

"It feels like Stefan only loves me because I look like her. He says he doesn't see me as her at all, but the truth is that the only reason he wanted to know me was because I looked like her. And now I just…it doesn't feel the same. I love Stefan, but not as much as he loves me. It's not enough, and I hate myself for not being able to love him back."

Edward stared at Elena for awhile with that deep gaze of his. Elena looked up at him, and then awkwardly looked back out the window, wishing he'd say something. Finally, he did.

"You can't force yourself to love someone, Elena," he murmured. "It doesn't make you a bitch for being honest with yourself."

Elena smiled at him slightly.

"And by the way, he's not being tortured."

Elena looked at him in question.

"I've been looking out for him." He pointed to his temple. "I asked Aro to let him stay in a room instead of the dungeon, and to be fed." Edward shrugged. "He conceded after awhile."

Elena unthinkingly reached out and hugged him, pushing her face into his cold neck. "Thank you, Edward," she whispered.

He hesitantly wrapped his arms around her, a smile playing at his lips. "You're welcome, Elena."

* * *

**Author's Note, please read:**

**Thoughts other than "great chapter" or "update soon" would be greatly appreciated. Come on, give me some detailed reviews! I live for reviews lol :) when I see "review alert" in my email, it makes me want to update that much sooner. And yes, I am bribing you. So please, comment on the chapter! What did you like? What did you not like? Questions, predictions, concerns, requests? **

**:)**


	11. Hate

Stefan finally began to wake up. His skin crawled. He hated being awake. He felt all the pain that disappeared in sleep. He had been stabbed when he was running after the car that took Elena, and someone – Katherine he was sure it was – came out and stabbed him in the stomach.

Stefan looked down at his blood soaked shirt. He pressed his palm to it, and it came back covered in red like a child's finger-painting. His whole body screamed in pain. He was so hungry. His stomach growled and churned violently. He fell sideways across the cold dungeon wall as vomit poured from his mouth. It was blood that he was puking up.

He tried to listen for Elena, but he was weak. He couldn't even hear as good as other vampires in the first place since he didn't drink human blood. All he heard was the sounds in the pitch black dungeon – the drip of dirty water against the cold, cobblestone floor, and his deep, ragged breaths.

Stefan pushed himself back up, screaming in pain as his wound throbbed. He panted, falling to the other side of the cold floor, away from the vomit. He hoped Damon was coming to save them. He had never wanted his big brother as much as he wanted him now in so long.

Suddenly the familiar, grating sound of the dungeon doors opening resounded throughout the room. Stefan instinctively looked up, his green eyes wide. He saw only darkness, when suddenly light pooled just at the edge of where Stefan sat. He cringed away from the light, his ring still gone.

Katherine's familiar, lean figure stood in the wide doorway. She had her hands on her hips, her head cocked and a vindictive smile on her lips. "Hello, Stefan," she said. It still surprised Stefan that even though Elena and Katherine had the same voices, they sounded different.

Stefan said nothing, he just clutched his stomach as he felt more blood flow out.

Katherine was suddenly at his side, holding his right hand. "You're moving up, Stefan," she said, a smile in her voice. She slid his ring back onto his finger.

Stefan's brow furrowed. "I don't understand," he said.

Katherine stood up, looking down at him. "Glitter boy got Aro to let you out of here. You get to join the rest of the world." She pursed her lips. "Well, world meaning the rest of the people in the Volturi's home."

Stefan took a deep breath, wanting more than anything to be able to act strong in front of Katherine. He wanted to act as if he didn't need her, or even want her near him. But he couldn't even stand, the pain was so excruciating.

"I…can't," Stefan breathed out, "stand."

Katherine had an expression of pure worry on her face, but it passed as soon as it had come. "Maybe you should go back to humans, Stefan. The animal diet doesn't seem to be working for you." She smirked.

Stefan glared at her as hard as he could, sweat beading at his temple as he felt all his muscles spasm as the onslaught of pain washed over him from not eating in so long.

"Please…Katherine," he whispered. He shut his eyes, breathing through his nose. "Please."

Katherine felt her chest tighten at the sight of Stefan. The one thing in the world that made her almost lose herself was seeing Stefan look like this. She reached down and pulled him up, close to her side. She felt her whole body warm at the contact. She loved Stefan ever since the night he dropped her off at her home after the party all those years ago. He had said that when he looked at her, all he saw was an angel. He was the one person in the world that looked at her and saw beauty, and goodness. Whenever other people looked at her, all they saw was evil, or a girl that someone wanted to own. Because of her beauty, she always had asshole guys trying to get her. She took care of them, though.

She just wasn't sure if Stefan still looked at her seeing no evil.

Stefan couldn't find the will in him to care that Katherine was touching him, and that he was being dependant of her. He just wanted the pain to be gone.

Katherine ran up to the room they were going to keep Stefan in and plopped him down onto the bed. He groaned in pain. Katherine lifted up his blood-soaked T-shirt and her brown eyes widened. The stab wound that she had given him was red and puffy, blood leaking from the cut.

"Why aren't you healing?" she demanded angrily, her nostrils flared as her eyes watered irrationally. "When vampires get injured, they heal. What the hell is wrong with you?"

Stefan's eyes were shut, his cheeks flushed, but the rest of him was losing color. If he wasn't a vampire, she was sure he'd be dead by now.

"Too…weak," he whispered through his dry throat. She knew he needed to eat. "Haven't eaten…not healthy enough. So I'll just stay like this forever, in pain, and slowly wither away like the people in the tomb." He coughed and blood came out.

Katherine quickly wiped away at her tears even though he had his eyes shut. She wouldn't let him see her cry over him – especially something she had did to him.

"I'll get you food then." She ran from the room and went into the kitchen. Tinsley, the cook and Elena's maid, stood at the stove, stirring something in a huge pot.

Tinsley turned robotically, smiling. Katherine had been compelling her and feeding off her. "Hello, miss!" she greeted Katherine. "I'm making stew, would you like some?"

Katherine dipped her finger inside the pot and took a lick. "Needs more salt," she said.

Tinsley nodded and turned and she saw that someone had bandaged up her bite mark.

"I'm guessing Elena fixed your neck?" Katherine asked.

Tinsely turned, holding the salt shaker. She looked frightened. "I told her not to, miss. I really did."

Katherine smiled kindly, but it was fabricated to trick Tinsley. "I know, sweetie. Come here." She waved her hand for her to walk over.

Tinsley bit her lip and walked over to Katherine, her heart pounding.

Katherine rubbed Tinsley's perfect cheeks. Tinsley really _was _a pretty human…

And then she snapped her neck.

Tinsley fell to the floor with a soft thud at Katherine's feet, the salt shaker clattering loudly to the floor. Katherine grabbed the salt shaker and put some into the stew, and then went into the fridge and got some animal blood that Aro had saved for Edward. She took one, and then stared thoughtfully at the red, sloshing liquid in the blood bag. She opened the fridge again and took out four more, and then ran back up to Stefan's room.

She would have thought he was dead if it weren't for her good hearing. She could hear his slow, uneven breaths from the door way of the massive room. All the guest rooms looked the same – wood floors, big, red sheeted beds, giant closets, and personal bathrooms. Katherine, despite her hate for Aro, liked it in the Volturi palace. She hadn't stayed somewhere so nice and secure in so long.

She sat down on the bed next to Stefan who had his eyes shut, lying on his back with his arms flung out above his head. Katherine smiled, despite herself, and pushed back his sweaty hair with her fingertips.

His eyes snapped open immediately and his eyes looked all around the room in confusion, and then he looked up at Katherine. "I didn't know you were back," Stefan rasped.

"Vampire hearing failing you?" she joked.

He shut his eyes, but said nothing more.

Katherine opened the blood bag and dipped her finger in. She looked at Stefan and saw his nose sniffing the air. His eyes snapped open again, and he was sitting up straight, his green eyes wide. His fangs popped out, and his eyes filled with a brownish blood. He hissed and then tackled Katherine. He yanked the blood from her hand and drank it in one sip. He turned and then started devouring each bag. In seconds, they were all empty, and Stefan was crouching on the bed, his eyes back to normal, fangs gone, and blood dripping down his chin.

Katherine picked herself up off the floor and went over to him. She lifted his shirt and was met only with his muscled chest –no wound. Katherine grinned and looked up at Stefan's big, worried eyes. "Perfect," Katherine whispered, that smile that Stefan always knew meant trouble on her lips.

Bella sat in the car, waiting for Damon. She was glad he was gone, though. The drive into the first town in Colorado had been silent and awkward. He had tried talking to her, but she refused to respond. There was nothing she wanted to say to him.

Damon had basically said he liked Bella as more than a friend. He said that she was good enough for him. She didn't need to change for Damon, because Damon liked her as she was. Bella had been confused by that. She didn't know what to feel. Her head was telling her one thing, and her heart was telling her another. Her head was saying she was only here for Edward, but her heart said when Damon said those things, she had been more than pleased.

She had been…alive. She had felt every part of her body light up with life. Someone thought she was good enough, someone thought she was beautiful. Damon didn't want to use her for sex; he wouldn't allow it. Bella was sure he hadn't done that to other girls. She was sure if she was any other girl, Damon would have just had sex with them, uncaring of their feelings.

But Bella knew he cared for her more than other girls. He _liked _her.

Bella fought a smile, covering her mouth with her fist.

Despite her happiness at Damon's discovery, her head wouldn't let her say anything. It had flashed Edward's face in her mind, and before she knew what she was doing, she was on her feet and running to the bathroom. She had cried for hours in the shower, letting her tears mix with the cleansing hot water. When she came out of the bathroom, her door had hit Damon, who had fallen asleep against the door, waiting for her to come out. He had tried talking to her, but she had ignored him, falling asleep in her dirty bed.

Bella wanted to tell Damon that she liked him too. She wanted to more than anything in the world. But her afraid, insecure side got in the way every time she had tried talking to Damon about his confession while they were driving into town. She'd start stuttering and blushing, and Damon would stare at her with a raised eyebrow, his ice eyes looking amused. And then she'd shake her head, mumbling a, "Never mind."

Damon opened the car door, breaking her out of her reverie. He threw clothes at her, starting up the car. Bella jolted in her seat, looking at him in confusion.

"Why did you have to go to the mall again?" she asked.

Damon glanced at her and quickly looked away. He put his hand out as if to turn on the radio, and then saw he had broken it and let his hand fall back onto the steering wheel.

"As hot as you look in a dirty T-shirt and jeans, I was thinking you'd like to wear something clean," he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the road. Damon also felt awkward around Bella ever since he had told her he liked her.

Bella looked at Damon and saw he was wearing different jeans and a new shirt under his leather jacket. Bella raised an eyebrow. "How did you pay for these?"

Damon smirked, revealing his bright white teeth. "I didn't have to."

Bella sighed, not wanting to ask what he did to get free clothes. She pulled her T-shirt off, not caring if Damon saw. If she was being honest with herself, she wanted him to see. Bella looked down at her modest, white bra, a blush filling her cheeks. She wished she was wearing something sexy, like a lace bra, or leopard print. She quickly pulled the purple, flannel shirt Damon had gotten her on, and then slid her jeans off, squirming around in the seat like an idiot.

Damon was trying futilely to keep his eyes on the road. His eyes kept flashing over to Bella against his will.

Bella finished changing and pulled the mirror down, looking at her reflection. Her hair was sticking up everywhere from changing, but she looked…different. Her eyes weren't hollow; they were bright. She looked as she felt – alive. It was new. She hadn't felt like this ever since Edward left.

After about an hour more of driving, Damon pulled up to a huge mansion. Behind the mansion was a lake, and a background of beautiful-looking mountains. The house was all white, with a rock walkway that led to a wraparound porch and a big, blue double-door front door.

Bella's eyes were wide as she looked at the mansion in awe. "What is this place?"

Damon pulled his sunglasses on as he exited the car, sighing as the sun hit his skin. "This is the Cullens home."

Bella's eyes widened and she stumbled out of the car, falling face first onto the rock walkway. Damon was at her side in a flash, grabbing her thin arm and pulling her to her feet.

"You really need to get yourself together, Bella," Damon hissed in her ear.

Bella glared at him and yanked her arm away. She looked up at the big mansion, a new feeling rising in her – fear. She hadn't seen any of the Cullens since her horrible birthday party almost a year ago. Now she'd have to face all of them at once. Did they hate her? Would they be sickened by the sight of her? She knew Rosalie would be, but Rosalie always was, so that wasn't new.

"How did you find them?" Bella demanded, looking behind her and saw only a long road that disappeared into the distance. No wonder the Cullens chose to live here. It was far from any civilization, perfect for them.

"I asked around in the mall if any of the girls knew where the Cullen family lived. They knew, and were far too eager to share the information with me. They said something about all of them being ridiculously good-looking." Damon shrugged.

Bella kept staring at the house, just waiting in fear. She wouldn't be surprised if the doors opened and swallowed her alive. "They are. These kinds of vampires are turned extraordinarily good-looking once they turn."

Damon pursed his lips. "Sparkly _and_ good-looking? It sounds like they turned into fairies, not vampires."

Bella didn't even want to mention to Damon that they didn't have fangs.

"Leave them alone; that's my ex-future family you're making fun of."

Damon rolled his eyes and began walking his runway-like walk to the front door. Bella's eyes widened and she quickly ran after him, her sneakers making all the rocks clatter loudly. She was sure the Cullens had to already have heard them as soon as they pulled up to the huge house. It unnerved her.

"Damon, no!" Bella gasped in a whisper.

He turned to her incredulously, giving her that loathing look he so often wore. "I'd really appreciate it if you returned back to your badass self for awhile; whiny insecure Bella is getting on my nerves."

Bella's face went from shock and hurt to anger. She glared at him and shoved him back until he hit the pole to the wraparound porch.

Damon grinned as his back hit the pole. He liked when Bella was all tough. He knew it was just a mask, though.

Bella knocked on the door with her fist, her face set like stone. The door flew open with the first knock, and there stood Alice. Bella's face fell and she lost all control. Tears flew from her eyes and she gasped as if she saw the ghost of a long gone loved one.

"Alice?" she gasped. She ran forward, crashing her body into Alice's stone one. "I thought I'd never see you again!" she laughed crazily, tears still flowing from her eyes.

Damon pushed off from the pole, _his _face now set.

"Bella…?" Alice said in surprise. She had thought she was crazy when she heard Bella's voice from inside the house, like she was just imagining it. But here Bella was. She was here. "What are you doing here?"

Bella pulled back. She stepped away from Alice, suddenly remembering everything that had happened to her. She remembered how everyone in the Cullen family had just abandoned her, without as much as a goodbye. She stepped as far away from Alice's gold, penetrating eyes as she could get. She stood next to Damon, pressing herself against his comforting warmth.

"I'm Damon," Damon said in a falsely polite voice. He smiled that cocky smile of his and held his hand out. "Damon Salvatore."

Alice's thin eyebrows pulled down in confusion on her angelic face. She stared at Damon's hand, and then looked back up at him. She said nothing.

Damon let his hand fall. "We hear that a friend-"

"Brother," Bella interjected quietly.

Damon glared at her and continued. "Your '_brother_' has gone missing."

Alice's gold eyes widened and her face fell into a sneer that didn't fit her beautiful face. She rushed forward in a blur of white and black and clutched Damon's neck, crashing him into the pole of the porch. "What have you done with Edward?" Alice demanded.

Bella gasped and ran forward. "Alice, stop!"

Damon coughed. "You're a…quick little…thing," he gasped out, smiling slightly.

"Alice, he doesn't have Edward! We're here to help!"

Alice looked from Bella to Damon with frantic eyes. Finally, she released him, jumping back to the doorway. "You are?" she asked cautiously, looking at Damon.

"The person – or people – that took Edward took my brother and Elena," Damon explained.

"Yes, so if you would just let us in-"

Alice looked at Bella as if just realizing she was there. "Bella, how did you get involved in all this?" She covered her face with her hands. _Edward was stupid to think leaving would keep her away from this world._

"A witch in Damon's town told him I could help," Bella said defensively, raising her chin.

"Help how?" Alice asked.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Just let us in and we'll explain everything," he said.

Alice stared at them both for a long time, and then moved aside. Bella walked right in. Damon was hesitant, hovering his foot over the threshold, and then saw that he could come in without having to be invited in.

Alice couldn't believe Bella was here, in Colorado, in her home. She couldn't wait for the rest of the Cullens to get back from searching for Edward. Ever since Edward disappeared while hunting, all the Cullens had been running through the woods, up the mountains, searching for any clues at all. There was none – no trace of him at all. His scent ended at the lake.

Bella looked around the Cullen's new home in fascination. It was so much warmer than their old home in Forks had been. This one had colored walls, with wooden floors and high ceilings. There were stone fireplaces, and a fuzzy rug in the living room, where Alice led them to. Bella sat down on the burgundy couch across from the fireplace, curling into a ball against the cushion.

Damon leaned against the fireplace mantel, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at the tiny vampire girl named Alice. He knew appearances could be deceiving – Alice was living proof of that.

"Bella, why are you here – with him?" she demanded, throwing her arm out in Damon's general direction.

"I have a name," Damon sneered.

Alice ignored him, continuing, "What's going on? How do you know what happened to Edward?" she asked Bella.

Bella remember Damon's words, telling her how he wanted her to get back to being more assertive. Bella stood, her fists clenched. Damon raised an eyebrow at her abrasive manner.

"Alice," Bella said, raising her chin, "you and the rest of the Cullens ditched me without as much as a goodbye. I thought we were friends. You can't yell at me, treating me like a child. You don't know what I went through; you don't know. And now you're acting like you're the boss of me." Bella raised her chin. "How could you all just leave me?" Her voice cracked, and she felt the hole in her chest flare up in pain. Her throat clogged with tears and she fought to keep them from falling.

Alice looked like if she could, she'd be crying. Her eyes were wide, and she was making some weird sort of gasping noise. "Bella, I'm so-"

"Sorry?" Bella interrupted in a hard voice. "I'm sure you are. If you cared so deeply about me, you wouldn't have left."

"I didn't have a choice!" Alice yelled, coming towards Bella.

Bella stepped around her, standing at Damon's side. Damon wanted to smirk, but he held it back.

"Because Edward couldn't stand the sight of me and wanted to cut all ties with me – I get it. He told me in the woods."

Alice grabbed Bella's hand, desperate to make her understand. "Bella, that's not true at all."

She actually laughed. "What? He told me himself! He said he didn't want me, that I was just a distraction! He-"

"_He lied, Bella_!" Alice screamed at the top of her lungs. Alice took a deep breath, nearly sighing in relief. To finally clear the air with Bella – something she had been thinking about doing for so long – made her feel so good.

All the anger left Bella's face. She staggered backwards, nearly falling into the fire of the fireplace as if she had been slapped. Damon gripped her arm, pulling her upright, into his side. The feel of him against her comforted her minutely, but not enough.

"Lied?" Bella shook her head, unbelieving. "No, he wouldn't do that. It makes no sense. Why would he lie?"

"He wanted to keep you from this world, Bella. He knew it wasn't good for you. He didn't want you to have this life," Alice explained, her voice gentle.

Bella couldn't believe she had wasted months crying, months screaming from nightmares, months wanting to die, months feeling like she was worthless, months worrying Charlie and Renee, months being lonely and depressed, all because Edward selfishly made a decision for her, without letting her decide for herself, to rip her from his world, the world she had wanted more than anything.

She had never thought it would be possible, but it seemed it was.

Bella Swan _hated _Edward Cullen.

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**Author's Note:**

**Shout out to MidnightForever17 and Black Fire Blossom for their awesome reviews! Thank you guys :) People who leave detailed reviews now get previews of the next chapters, so leave a GOOD review! I literally got a review that said: oh wow. What does that even mean?**

**Ask questions! I want to feel like you're interested, and wondering, and _like_ it! Or dislike something! Whatever, it doesn't matter. And to new readers, please don't just favorite and not review, or story alert and not review. I'd like to know what you liked about my story so much to favorite or story alert it. Thanks a bunch.**

**So what did you think of this chapter? I brought back Damon/Bella like a lot of you have been asking! I'm one of those writers who write as the ideas come. I only have a few things planned out. Most of this story is written out on the spot. But I have a timeline, and this is when I wanted to bring them back. Next chapter will probably be all Damon/Bella.**

**REVIEW! :D**


	12. How Long is Forever

**All right, so I have some explaining to do for the big break. Okay, so, first I had extreme writer's block/not feeling like writing. Then my laptop broke -_- Then my mom decided to move, so I had no time to write for awhile. And now, I finally finished this chapter that has been half-written since like...the last update. I know it's small; only 7 pgs, but I hope that updates will come more frequently now. Attempt to enjoy!**

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Bella tried reigning in the anger that swelled in her. She clenched her fists, staring at Alice with her mouth agape. The aching heartbreak in her chest was overlapped with a wave of betrayal and anger. How could he have done that? If he loved her so much – unconditionally and irrationally as she did – then how could he have left so easily? Bella knew she would never have been able to leave Edward willingly, if she had the choice. What would possess him to do that?

"Why?" Bella whispered almost inaudibly, her eyes still wide and staring at Alice's remorseful face.

"He was trying to protect you, Bella," Alice said in a calm voice, probably trying to keep Bella from going on a rampage.

"_Protect me_?" Bella said in disbelief. "Leaving me with Laurent and Victoria is protecting me? If it weren't for the werewolves, I'd be dead now, Alice. Laurent tried to kill me! He said Victoria was going to, and he'd kill me quickly before she could get to me." Remembering that moment where she went to what once was her and Edward's meadow, only to be cornered by Laurent, made her want to sob and scream all at once. All of the bad things that happened to her and everyone around her were because Edward left. And now Bella knew it wasn't her fault. It felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Alice looked surprised. "He didn't know that, Bella – I swear!" Alice gasped.

Bella looked at the clean floor, not wanting Alice to see her eyes watering. She felt her lip trembling and she bit it to stop the motion. "That doesn't make it better, Alice," she said in as steady of a voice as she could manage.

"He left to protect you from _us, _Bella. After your birthday, he knew that you being around us was dangerous."

Bella looked up, once again livid. "Then he should have just changed me!" Bella felt Damon put his hand around her wrist, and she realized she was shaking. She also felt her tears gliding down her cheeks. She was embarrassed, but not enough to stop.

"He didn't want this life for you, Bella."

"It wasn't his choice to make!" she screamed as loud as she could.

Alice's eyes widened and she cringed, looking horrified.

"It was my choice! It was what I wanted! So…" Bella felt her badass self take over. She yanked her wrist from Damon and glared at Alice. "Fuck you!" And then she stormed from the room, running blindly back to the front door, and across the gravel pathway. She tripped a few times against the jagged rocks, sobbing as she fell. Her knees and hands stung as the rocks tore through her skin.

Bella didn't hear anyone coming after her, but she knew vampires walked soundlessly. She glanced behind her and saw no one. She sighed in relief. She didn't want to talk anymore; she wanted to be alone. Bella ran the rest of the way through the waist-high field of grass to the river behind the Cullen's new home.

Bella liked the feel of the sunlight on her face. Spring was coming soon. She looked forward to spring. Spring brought light, and she hoped with the light she'd maybe feel happier. Bella felt the smooth grass skimming across her skin. She couldn't help but feel like she just won a race, and now she was running through a crowd with tons of people skimming their hands across her, congratulating her.

She stopped abruptly in front of the water, taking in gulps of air as she stared at her reflection in the water. Tears were pouring from her dark eyes, and she looked like a wreck. However, despite her appearance…the ache was gone. She didn't yearn for Edward. She didn't wish he'd just show up. She was sure if he did she'd set him on fire.

Bella plopped down onto the grass, still breathing heavy. She wasn't a runner, that was for sure. She pulled out a cigarette, and clicked the lighter. She stared at the flame for what could have been seconds or hours, and then threw both the lighter and the pack of cigarettes in the lake. She didn't need to fill the hole anymore.

Damon pursed his lips as he stared after Bella as she ran from the living room, and then he glanced to the small vampire named Alice. Alice glared at Damon, as if it was his fault that Bella found out all the lies the Cullens had been feeding her.

"You sure fucked up," he said matter-of-factly.

Alice's glare deepened, and then she lunged for his neck again. Damon was prepared for it this time and he smirked, grabbing her small body and smashing her against the wall of the living room. Alice's gold eyes widened and she clutched at Damon's iron hand around her neck, her feet twitching below her spasmodically.

"Hey!"

Damon whirled, still clutching Alice to him to see a big, burly man with curly brown hair crouched in the doorway of the living room. In a flash came another boy with blond hair, his gold eyes in slits. He hissed like a wild animal at Damon, his bone white hands going into the shape of a claw. Three other people came in behind the burly man – a blond man who looked the oldest, a woman with caramel colored hair and a shocked look on her face, and a beautiful blond girl who looked not surprised at all.

Damon knew that they were all vampires – they all had the same, odd smell that lurked in Bella's home back in Forks. The smell was icy and sweet…burning slightly with its sweetness.

"May I help you?" Damon said politely, still smiling.

Alice struggled in his arms, scratching at his wrists. The cuts bled and then healed too fast to actually cause pain.

Suddenly the burly vampire lunged for Damon, a growl erupting from his chest. Damon deflected him using Alice as a sort of bat. The burly vampire crashed against the wall, creating a hole. Alice slid across the floor, crashing into a set of doors and breaking them. The blond, lean vampire was suddenly on Damon's back, and Damon ran into the wall, crashing over and over again until the blond boy fell off, like a pesky parasite.

All the vampires charged at once then and Damon jumped into the air, kicking off the wall and landing at the entryway of the living room. All of the Cullens turned in surprise and Damon smirked and did a tipping hat motion. He was about to leave their home when he bumped into Bella.

Bella gasped as she crashed into Damon's chest. She looked up at him with her big, beautiful eyes, and Damon felt a strange flutter in his stomach.

"Bella?" the blond, oldest vampire said in confusion.

Bella's face was unemotional. "Hello, Carlisle."

All of the vampires came into the entryway then, all with wide eyes except Alice. Alice explained why Bella and Damon were there in a clipped voice, keeping her eyes to the floor.

"You're here to help us?" Carlisle asked in surprise, looking at both Damon and Bella.

"Yes," Bella answered in a voice that was not nearly as strong enough as she would have liked. She still viewed the Cullens as her family, as stupid and naïve as that was. The smart thing to do would be to try and shove them away from her, cut all of the ties she had ever thought they had, and could even grow in some cases – like Rosalie. But after Bella found out Edward's true meaning for…well, ruining her whole life and future, she couldn't seem to push them away. They hadn't done anything, besides going along with Edward's stupid plan. Edward's one downfall was that he made decisions for Bella without even consulting her. He treated her like a child, which she definitely knew she wasn't.

"I'm going to help find Edward."

At the mention of Edward's name, Alice was suddenly yanked into the strange psyche world where each of her visions flew through to make it to her open mind. She was hit with this vision like it was a wrecking ball, literally staggering back and falling into Jasper's ready arms. She could hear the bubbling of his voice, as if she was underwater, could feel his hands around her, the same temperature as her own, forever-unchanging skin, but then it was gone. Like the switch of a light, she was completely taken into the psyche world, sucked into this future that would soon happen, revealing her first to the image of Edward.

Edward is being held by Felix, the Volturi guard's strongest living vampire they have encountered thus far. Edward struggles, unable to break free.

"No!" Edward screams so loudly it's as if someone is pulling his toenails out, one by one. "You can't do this to us! Elena!"

Alice didn't have time to ponder over the name. Thoughts of her own choosing would only come after she viewed the entire vision. All she could do, and wanted to do, was watch.

Aro suddenly slithers from the darkness cast by a huge sort of stage. It's not as wide as a stage – it's more of the size of a square.

Alice began drawing, she thought. She knew by now Jasper had set her down and gave her a pencil and paper.

On the stage, a beautiful, brunette girl is tied by her wrists and ankles, wearing nothing but a gauzy, see-through robe. She doesn't struggle, she just stares up at the dome-like ceiling of the Volturi's room that they usually use for deciding on whether to kill people. Tears streak her beautiful face. The girl looks at Edward and takes a deep breath.

"It's okay, Edward," she whispers in such a delicate voice you'd think the voice came from an angel. "Please, for Stefan."

Aro grins and a girl identical to the girl tied up comes to his side, dressed in a long gown.

"Do it, Edward, or we'll kill her, and your Bella," she snarls.

Edward stares at them uncomprehendingly, and suddenly, the vision is over, like a TV that suddenly shuts off.

Alice gasped and she heard the clatter of the pencil falling to the ground. Jasper grabbed her shoulders and turned her towards him.

"What happened, Alice? What did you see?" he asked urgently.

All Alice could do was glance down at the drawing; it was an exact reiteration of the Volturi's room, with Edward and the identical girls, and everything.

Carlisle soundlessly lifted the drawing to his face and looked at it with a stoic expression. "I knew they had something to do with this," he muttered, and handed the picture over to an eager Bella.

Bella quickly grabbed the picture and looked at it. Her heart ached at the sight of Edward, even though she wished it didn't. Damon looked, too, and his eyes widened and the paper was in his hands in a flash.

"Hey!" Bella protested.

"Elena!" he gasped in wonder. "That's Elena."

"The Volturi took them?" Bella asked, looking to Alice.

Alice nodded.

"Why do they have Elena tied up?" Damon hissed, clenching his fists on the drawing.

"I don't know," Alice said honestly. "They're forcing Edward and Elena to do something. Edward wanted them to stop, and Elena said, 'Do it for Stefan.'"

"Stefan, your brother," Bella whispered.

Damon felt his heart fall at the thought of someone killing Stefan. He was Stefan's older brother – the only blood he truly had left. He couldn't imagine not ever seeing him again. He knew Stefan felt the same, despite all of the horror Damon inflicted on Stefan's "life." He didn't know why Stefan even tolerated him, let alone loved him, either.

"We have to find them. Where is this 'Volturi' place?" Damon demanded.

"In Italy," Bella said quickly, recalling her and Edward's conversation about the Volturi guard and how they "preserved the law." Vampires really had only one law, one rule: Don't let humans know of your existence. No one broke that rule, ever-

_Unless you want to die._

Edward's voice rang throughout her mind. Had Edward done something? Why did they take him, and Elena and Stefan? The Volturi were like cops, like Charlie, kind of, not really…. They wouldn't take a vampire innocently, would they? Bella wasn't sure about anything anymore.

"Then we're going to Italy," Damon said with finality.

Katherine strutted around the room in a way that made Stefan nervous and excited all at the same time, as it always did. He never knew what Katherine would do next, which he always liked about her – her spontaneity.

"Hmm…" Katherine hummed.

Stefan smacked her hand away from his chest, like a child would do to a pesky fly. "Katherine, please, if you have any kindness in your heart-"

Katherine grinned, stopping Stefan's sentence. He knew that sounded stupid.

"Okay, we both know you lack anything having to do with mercy," he said, his eyes in a glare of old hatred.

Katherine flipped down onto the big bed in the room. "True," she said in a sing-song voice.

Stefan walked over to Katherine, repulsed by her. It wasn't that she wasn't attractive, it was just that her cruelness – her uncaring nature for anything – made him disgusted. He remembered the first time he had ever laid eyes on Katherine; how beautiful she was – is…

_Miss. Pierce steps out of her carriage, and Stefan's eyes widen. Stefan knows this feeling – his older brother had explained it to him many times. Sweaty palms, stuttering heart, wide eyes. Stefan has never seen a girl he ever thought was beautiful. He never understood what beauty truly was, until he saw Miss. Pierce. _

_"Hello, Miss. Pierce," Stefan says as smoothly as he can._

_Katherine smiles her ruby red lips at him, and Stefan sees she is even more beautiful when smiling. "Good afternoon, Mr. Salvatore."_

Stefan also began to remember the night Katherine took him to her room for the first time. She had kissed him, his first kiss ever, and he had been so happy, until she showed him what she truly was.

_Katherine's lips move softly, naturally, against Stefan's. Stefan can't think of a feeling more amazing than being with this angel. Katherine pulls back and smiles that smile Stefan loves, a smile of triumph and courage. Stefan has never met a woman more brave and outgoing than Katherine Pierce._

_"Stefan," she murmurs, gliding her hands down his flushed cheeks._

_Stefan can't seem to catch his breath; his heart is booming so fast as he makes love to Katherine._

_"Katherine," he whispers back._

_"I must tell you something," she says, and she burrows her face in his neck, kissing the spot where his pulse is beating wildly._

_Stefan grips Katherine's waist, pulling her as close to him as he can, sighing in pleasure at the feeling of being as close to Katherine as humanly possible._

_"You can tell me anything," he tells her, and he really means it._

_Katherine takes a deep breath – not to prepare to speak, but to inhale Stefan's heady scent. Katherine feels her fangs pop out and she makes a low growl as the enticing smell of Stefan's blood calls to her. Stefan pulls away from Katherine and looks down at her, his green eyes widening._

_"Katherine?" he whispers in shock and fear._

_Katherine growls and then sinks her teeth into his neck, so deep down inside that Stefan shrieks._

That was the last night Stefan remembered truly loving Katherine on his own. The rest, he realized now, was her compulsion.

"Why are you here, Katherine?" Stefan asked, sitting next to her on the grand bed.

Katherine grinned and fell back on the bed, her arms spread out as if she had wings. "Why must you always ask so many questions? Can't you just enjoy yourself?" she said.

Stefan rolled his eyes. "I can never enjoy myself around you."

Katherine rolled _her _eyes this time. "Oh, _please, _Stefan." Katherine jumped up from the bed and was suddenly in only her bra and underwear, jumping up and down on the massive bed. "Elena's not around; enjoy your immortality!" Katherine giggled and laughed, shaking her curly hair this way and that.

Stefan pounced onto Katherine and gripped her throat. They crashed into the wall of the room, creating a dent.

"Stop Aro from doing this to Elena, Katherine, please!" he begged.

Katherine's eyes slid into a glare. "Why? So she doesn't become a vampire?"

"Yes!" Stefan shouted.

"Why, Stefan? You don't want the love of your life to be with you _forever_?"

Stefan pushed himself away from Katherine and turned away, his fists clenched. He had always dreamt of living forever with Elena, but he knew she didn't want that – immortality. She wanted to be human.

"I would never take her mortality away from her. She doesn't want to be this way."

Katherine smiled wickedly, circling Stefan. "She doesn't want to be a vampire, because she doesn't really love you. If she did, she'd want to be with you forever, don't you think?"

Stefan said nothing, because he had been thinking the exact same thing.

"She doesn't love you, Stefan, face it. She can't love you enough – but I can. I'll love you forever, and I, unlike her, can promise you forever."

Stefan slowly looked at Katherine. "I know Aro wants you to kill me, so just do it."

Katherine wove her fingers through Stefan's hair. "Haven't you been listening to me, dummy? Klaus will come here to get me, and then Aro will kill him before he gets the chance. Elena will be turned into our kind of vampire, and mate with Edward to make Aro's prized, mixed vampires. That leaves Elena and Edward stuck here for eternity, which also leaves me free, and you without your Elena."

Stefan stared at Katherine, not understanding what she was getting at.

Katherine pressed her forehead against Stefan's. "Which means, you and I can finally be together forever."

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**Leave a review for a preview of the next chapter!**


	13. Changing

**I suggest listening to the song Consequence by The Notwist when reading this. It helped me finish writing the chapter.**

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"We're really going to go to Italy?" Bella asked. She couldn't believe it. Italy was so far away – obviously. Soon, if they ever made it, she'd see Edward. After a year, she'd see him in person. She wasn't sure if she was excited or enraged by this.

Damon rolled his eyes, taking sharp turns on the highway as he drove. The Cullens were back at their house, hunting some more to prepare for the long journey to Italy. Carlisle had said they would all meet at the gates of Volterra, where, inside, the Volturi Coven lived.

"Yes, Bella," he said. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes; she was fidgeting and biting her bottom lip, her thick, wavy hair billowing around from the wind of the open car window. "Are you nervous?" he asked her.

Bella was extremely nervous. She wasn't sure if she could do this – fight against the Volturi. And Bonnie had told Damon that he saw Bella as a vampire when they saved Edward and Elena. So did that mean Bella was destined to be a vampire after all? Had Edward been keeping her from her fate? It seemed Edward had been keeping her from a lot of things.

"Extremely," Bella said, and it was the truth. "Do you still have the ring, Damon?" Bella asked, and she knew he'd know what she meant by that.

Damon felt the weight of the ring in his pocket. It seemed heavier now. He gulped and nodded. "You don't have to do that, Bella," he told her.

Bella looked at him, at his inhuman beauty. She could look like that, too. "What choice do I have, really?" she asked hypothetically.

Damon's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "There's always a choice. You have a choice. You don't have to be a vampire just to save him," he said through clenched teeth. "You don't even _need _to save him, Bella. I can turn around and take you back home right now. You don't need to risk your life – your humanity – this way."

"Bonnie said I was the key to-"

"Forget what stupid Bonnie tells you! She's barely even a witch! She's an amateur," Damon yelled.

Bella raised her eyebrows at him and his outburst. "What is it really, Damon?" she asked. "Why are you so adamant about keeping me human?" Bella got a sudden wave of déjà vu as she remembered the many discussions Edward and her had about him changing her. He had never given in.

Damon breathed out heavily through his nostrils, trying to calm himself. "I already told you. I like you the way you are now."

"It's not about how you feel about me, Damon," Bella said, "there's something bigger than us happening in Italy, and I'm the only one who can stop it. I have to be a vampire." And Bella realized at that moment, that she had already decided her fate a long time ago; it would never change. "Damon, at the next stop, you're going to change me."

Damon screeched to a halt on the road and Bella flew forward in her seat, nearly flying out the windshield of the car. Thank God she had her seatbelt on.

"Just like that?" he yelled, staring at her with wide eyes. "You already decided?"

Bella nodded slowly. "I need to do this, Damon. I might hate Edward, but I…I think I'll always have feelings for him. I can't let him die if I have the power to stop it."

Damon covered his face in his hands. Why, out of all humans in the world, did it have to be Isabella Swan that was the key to saving his brother and Elena? Damon was torn between saving his family, and keeping Bella from making a decision he was sure she'd regret in many decades to come. He didn't want her to live as he did – regretting the day Stefan forced him to change. He had never had a decision back then. The blood had been brought out on a silver platter basically.

_"Brother."_

_Damon looks up. It's night time, the moon shining brightly in the sky. Damon sees Stefan standing at the edge of the trees, a wicked smile on his little brother's face. Stefan looks different – Damon can't really place it, but he does._

_Damon stands, eyeing Stefan cautiously, and then sees drops of blood on Stefan's shirt. Damon's eyes widen. "What have you done?" he whispers._

_Stefan grins, his teeth covered in blood. "I went through with the change."_

_Damon's eyes widen further. "Why would you do that, Stefan? Katherine's gone – dead! There's no point in forever without her!" Damon tries to walk away and Stefan puts his hand on his shoulder, keeping him rooted there with his inhuman strength. _

_"It's like magic, Damon! I've never experienced anything like it! I can hear things that are miles away, see through the dark like it is day! Everything is so clear and sharp – it is like I have new eyes!" Stefan shouts exultantly. "It's amazing."_

_Damon shakes his head, his lips curled back in disgust. _

_"I brought you something, dear brother," Stefan says, grinning. He turns back to the trees and says, "Come out, please."_

_A young woman emerges from the darkness of the trees. Damon is hit immediately with the intoxicating scent of her fresh, human blood. The girl doesn't look frightened at all; she walks forward calmly, a dull look in her eyes. She stops at Stefan's side and he pushes her blond hair to one side of her neck, revealing the white flesh of the other. Damon can see her vein pulsing, can hear it. His eyes widen and he steps forward._

_Stefan grins. "Do it, Damon. Please, join me for eternity."_

_Damon shakes his head, trying to expel himself from the world of blood. He's almost out, almost ready to finally say no, once and for all, when Stefan's fangs pop out and he bites into the girl's neck. She shakes a little, but makes no sound. Stefan steps back, smiling, and blood is dripping from his mouth and the girl's wound._

_"Go on," Stefan coaxes._

_Damon is yanked back, and all he can hear is her pulse, all he can see is her ruby red blood. _All he wants is blood. _Damon's mouth is at her wound, sucking and drinking her life away. He doesn't care. He just knows he wants it, now. All the blood is gone, and the girl falls to the ground with a thud, dead._

_Damon looks up at Stefan in horror, his once human eyes pulsing with blood, and his fangs dripping with his sin._

Damon was jolted out of the memory as people honked their horns at him. Damon realized he had just stopped in the middle of the road, and then began to drive again, unable to shake the despair of knowing that Bella would be a vampire by tonight.

"It's what I want," Bella whispered as Damon continued driving.

Elena was sleeping when a knock to her door awoke her. She jolted in her bed and looked around the room, at first surprised at her surroundings. But then she remembered where she was, and why she was here.

"Come in," she said, even though she didn't want whoever was there to come in. The door opened, and it was Stefan. Elena jumped up from her bed, despite herself. She couldn't help it. She had thought they would kill him, despite Edward's reassurances that they wouldn't. She wrapped her arms around his neck, clutching him to her. "You're okay," she murmured in relief.

Stefan could hear Elena's heart pounding in his ears, and he also heard Katherine's words in his mind: _She doesn't love you, Stefan, face it. She can't love you enough – but I can. I'll love you forever, and I, unlike her, can promise you forever._

But at hearing the relief in Elena's voice that he was okay, and hearing her heart beat in excitement in seeing him, he had to wonder how she couldn't love him. He had to ask.

Stefan clutched her to him as well, but not enough to hurt her. "I'm okay," he said.

Elena pulled back and she had tears in her eyes. Every time Elena thought about Stefan, she was filled with the painful feeling of betrayal. She would always think whenever she saw him look at her with love in his eyes, if he really loved _her _or her _face_.

"Stefan-"

"Elena-"

They both stopped.

"You go first-"

"Go ahead-"

Elena sighed and pulled him over to her bed. She held his hand in hers, remembering the first time she saw him at school and thought he was just an ordinary person. Elena knew now he was nothing close to ordinary.

"I need you to tell me something," she whispered. "And I need it to be the truth."

Stefan eyed her in confusion but nodded.

"Something has been bothering me lately," Elena continued.

Stefan stared at her quizzically. "What is it?" he asked.

Elena looked down at their tangled hands. She felt that not looking at his eyes helped her to talk.

"I know you said that the reason you first grew interested in me was because I looked like Katherine. But then when you realized we were completely different, you knew you had to know me, right?" Elena asked slowly, looking up at him nervously.

He nodded, looking confused.

"But ever since I've seen her in person, I feel like…like you only love me because I'm like the Katherine you wish the real Katherine was, that I'm the way you saw Katherine in the beginning, before you knew she was a vampire." Elena took a deep breath and looked at Stefan.

Stefan was staring so deeply into Elena's eyes that she couldn't look away. His hand rose up and pushed a piece of her straight hair behind her ear. He traced her lips with his fingertips, never letting his eyes wander from hers.

"You. Are. Not. Katherine," he said with finality. The way he said it made Elena almost believe it.

"But I am her, basically. I'm only here because of her. We're linked, Stefan," Elena said urgently.

"You're not linked, and you're not her at all. Katherine is evil, uncaring, cruel, and you're…you're like no one I have ever met before. You're kind and fearless and loving. You're selfless, so selfless to the point where it's infuriating." Elena smiled at that and Stefan smiled at her smile. He cradled her delicate face between his hands, forcing her to look at him. "I don't know if you and Katherine are linked in some way – I can't explain why you two look alike. But I can explain how you and Katherine are not alike at all. And I'll prove to you how much I love _you_ for the rest of my eternal life if that's what it takes to prove to you that I'm yours, and only yours for forever, Elena."

Elena stared at him for a moment, her heart overwhelmed with her spilling emotions. She believed him. It wasn't really so much as believing, because there was no other alternative to believe in. Stefan and Elena were meant for each other – that was just the way it was, and now Elena could see that.

Elena smiled, tears dripping from her eyes. She was so stupid to have doubted him. "I love you, Ste-"

Elena's bedroom door burst open and Aro and Felix were standing there. Felix's arms were crossed over his chest, his muscles bulging. Stefan looked up and his eyes widened. He was standing in an instant, protectively covering Elena.

"Stefan, I see you're up and around," Aro said in his disturbingly kind voice.

Stefan's eyes were in slits, careful and cautious. "Yes," he said. "Katherine fed me, so blame her."

Aro flipped his hand, as if waving away his words. "I know, Mr. Salvatore. I was the one who told her to let you out. Mr. Cullen had been begging me to put you into more…livable conditions."

"Well tell him I thank him," Stefan said. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Actually, there isn't. However, Miss. Gilbert could be of some use to me." Aro looked at her and grinned.

Elena held onto Stefan's hand for dear life, her heart beating like a loud drum. She was sure all of the vampires in the room could hear it.

"What for?" Elena whispered, fear evident in her voice.

"It's time to change you for the ceremony. You have to be a vampire for it, as you know, and then tomorrow night Mr. Cullen has to impregnate you. These vampire hybrids are born in the course of a day, and they have to be born on a full moon – which is in two days – or they die."

Elena's mind was spinning with fear and confusion. It was time. Already, it was time. She'd be a vampire, she'd have to have sex with Edward, and she'd have to create hybrid vampire children for Aro. This would all happen in the course of two days.

"No!" Stefan yelled.

Aro smiled. "I was afraid you'd be of some trouble to me, Mr. Salvatore. If you refuse to be cooperative to my plans, I'll have to send you back to your old conditions in the dungeon."

Stefan shot forward to strike out at Aro, but Felix grabbed him and had his arm around his neck, choking him. Stefan looked at Elena with an expression that said: _Don't let him do this to you_. But Elena knew that if she didn't do what Aro said, he'd let Felix kill Stefan.

"Okay," Elena sobbed, tears pouring down her cheeks. "I'll go, just please, don't hurt him."

Aro grinned. "You heard her, Felix," he said.

Felix stabbed Stefan in the gut before releasing him to the ground. Stefan cried out as he fell to the floor, breathing heavily and clutching his wound in pain. Elena rushed forward to go to Stefan, but Felix grabbed _her _this time.

"No! You said you wouldn't hurt him!" Elena yelled.

"I never said such a thing," Aro laughed. "Katherine?"

Katherine was in the room in an instant. She was purposefully keeping her eyes away from Stefan, Elena noticed.

"Yes, sir?" Katherine said in a robotic voice.

"Take Mr. Salvatore somewhere where no one will find him," he ordered.

Katherine let her eyes slink to a panting Stefan, and then back to Aro. She curtly nodded, grabbed Stefan off the floor, and was gone in an instant. Elena burst out in screams and kicked and thrashed, acquiring tons of bruises, she could feel. She loved Stefan, she knew now, and she also knew she'd never see him again.

Damon stopped driving after many hours of silence. Bella looked out the window in confusion. It was almost dark, the sun beginning to set. The building Damon pulled up to said: Al's Bar.

"A bar?" Bella said incredulously. She looked at Damon who was staring ahead. He had ignored her attempts at conversation the entire drive. "Why are we at a bar, Damon? I need you to change me. Alice said we're running out of time."

Damon looked at Bella and smiled. "I know. It's your last night being human. You should live it up, don't you think?" And with that, he got out of the car.

Bella followed suit, but Damon was already at her side, opening the door for her and taking her hand to help her out.

"I was thinking about changing you the whole ride, and I decided, I'm okay with it," Damon said.

Bella looked up at him in surprise. "Really?"

He nodded. "I won't be like your Edward. If this is what you want, then you should get it. Besides, it's not my decision." He started to walk away and Bella followed after him, struggling to keep up.

Damon sat at the bar and ordered something. Bella hesitantly sat next to him.

"You know I'm underage, right?" Bella asked quietly, feeling intimidated with all of the older people around her.

Damon smiled. "Don't you remember? I can control humans to do whatever I want. It won't be a problem." Just as Damon said this, the bartender came over.

"Can I see some ID?" he asked Bella.

Bella was about to say something when Damon placed his hand on the man's shoulder. The man stared back at Damon, his eyes wide as his pupils moved in and out, the compulsion taking affect.

"You're going to give us as many drinks as we want tonight without question," Damon ordered.

"Yes," the man said robotically.

Damon leaned away and smiled. "Two beers, then, kind sir!"

The man smiled back. "You got it." And he walked away.

Bella had to admit, she'd be excited to have _that_ power.

Damon knew Bella was totally gone as he helped her stumble into their new motel room. She giggled and laughed drunkenly, collapsing on the plain white sheets of the bed. Damon stood over her and sighed, trying to hide his emotions, as he had tried doing this entire night. Damon wasn't drunk at all – he had been throwing shots down Bella's throat all night. He didn't want her to be aware of him changing her; it still didn't seem right to him to change Bella. He didn't want to, at all. But he knew it wasn't up to him. It was her choice.

"Damon," Bella murmured, reaching her hand up until she was running her fingers down his cheek.

Damon was suddenly brought out of his thoughts by her touch, like being suddenly electrocuted. "Yeah, Bella?"

"You're going to change me, right?"

Damon nodded and sat down next to her on the bed. He pulled her up until she was in a sitting position next to him. Bella watched him with hooded lids, her eyes looking incoherent. She was wasted. Damon took a deep breath, not taking his eyes off of her, and bit into his own wrist. The blood surged into his own mouth and he pulled away, his fangs hanging on his bottom lip and dripping with his magic blood.

Bella's eyes widened and she slowly leaned forward, looking at Damon as she placed her mouth to his bite wound. She sucked in his blood; it was warm and actually tasted…sweet. Not like salt like human blood did. It tasted good. She wanted more-

Damon pulled his wrist away and pulled Bella to her feet. Bella couldn't think straight; all she knew in her mind was she wanted more of Damon's tempting blood. Damon took a deep breath and put his hands on either side of her beautiful face. She stared at him, not really seeing him. Everything was blurry to her. Damon felt tears seep from his eyes as he rested his forehead against hers, not wanting her to see his weakness, and how much he didn't want to do this to her.

Bella smiled encouragingly. "It's okay, Damon," she murmured. She threaded her fingers through his inky hair and pushed his face up so he had to look at her. She saw his tears and was surprised.

"You'll never be exactly how you are now, Bella," he whispered to her, internally pleading for her to tell him not to do it.

Bella still smiled. "I'm already not exactly how I was. Do it, please," she said.

Damon swallowed thickly and his hands tightened on Bella's cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

_Snap._

Bella slumped forward into Damon's waiting arms – dead. She was dead. Damon stared straight ahead, letting his tears fall onto Bella's unmoving body.

Felix thrust Elena down onto a hard, metal table – like the ones doctors would use for examinations. Like she was some science experiment. Suddenly her hands and ankles were cuffed and she couldn't move. She pushed her hands against the metal cuffs and felt them painfully dig into her skin – so painful that she had to stop.

Aro stood over her and grinned. "Ready, my dear?" he asked.

Elena spat on his face in answer.

Aro continued smiling and wiped her spit off. "I'll take that as assent."

"No!" Elena caterwauled, tears pouring from her eyes. "Stop!"

"Katherine?" Aro said.

Elena's eyes widened in shock, and suddenly Katherine was hovering over Elena, staring at her blankly. Looking at Katherine felt like looking into a mirror of an alternate universe, where everything was backwards, and Elena was evil.

"You're changing me?" Elena stuttered in surprise and fear.

Katherine didn't answer, she just bit her wrist and shoved it in Elena's mouth.

"No!" Elena gurgled from behind the blood that was pooling in her mouth. It trickled down her throat without her letting it. There was so much blood coming from Katherine's wrist she was nearly gagging on it.

"That's enough, Miss Petrova," Aro said.

Katherine yanked her wrist away and Elena coughed, blood spewing out as if she had tuberculosis.

"Now all we have to do is kill you," Aro said pleasantly, as if commenting on the weather.

"No!" Elena vociferated. "Please, please…" She stopped, her sobs taking over, making her unable to talk.

Aro just laughed, and suddenly his hand broke through her stomach. Elena screamed, her eyes wide in pain as she felt Aro's hand inside her. She looked down at herself and saw all of her entrails out in the open, blood dripping everywhere. In all the ways they could have killed her, they did it this way – so violently.

Elena couldn't keep her eyes open. It felt like someone was yanking her down into darkness. She knew she'd wake up a monster.

_It's over._

And then she died.

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**Leave a review saying what you thought for a preview of the next chapter :)**


	14. Dark Decisions

**Sorry if I didn't send you a chapter preview if you reviewed. I didn't have time, and then I finished this and didn't see the point in sending a preview when I was putting it up now anyway. But this time if you review you'll definitely get a preview! Enjoy :)**

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Damon sat unmoving, unblinking on a chair positioned in front of the bed Bella's body was lying on. It had been hours that Damon sat there, waiting for her to wake to her new life. He still had tears silently sliding down his cheeks, his eyes raw and red. He couldn't believe he had actually killed her. Bella was dead.

_Damon looks up at his brother in shock, his eyes wide. _

_Stefan grins at him. "You did it," Stefan says encouragingly, resting his hand on Damon's shoulder. "You went through with the change. Now we can be together for eternity."_

_Damon slaps Stefan's hand away. "You got what you want, Stefan: an eternity with me. But now, I'll promise you something." He steps forward, a sneer on his face. "I promise you an eternity of misery, as long you're with me." Damon smiles with no humor, "And you plan to be with me for a long time, correct?"_

Damon looked up at Bella's body again – for about the thousandth time. He felt so guilty. He hadn't felt such guilt in so long. He shut his eyes and sighed loudly, kicking the chair and rising to his feet in one blurred, fluid motion.

"Wake up!" Damon yelled at her, as if she could hear. Damon was suddenly at her side, kneeling on the floor next to the bed. "Wake the hell up, Bella!" Damon began to wonder if maybe the change hadn't worked. Maybe his blood hadn't settled in her system yet. Maybe he had killed her. Damon's eyes widened as panic set in. His hand cupped Bella's cheek, and it was still warm – not cold with death. She had to be alive – or, at least alive in the vampire sort of way.

"Please, Bella," Damon whispered to her, "I can't lose you, too."

Bella's eyes snapped open and she gasped, sitting up straight in a flash of brown hair and pale skin. Bella was breathing heavily, as if she just came up for air from being under water for too long. Her hand went to her throat and she looked around the room. She didn't recognize it – everything was so much sharper. She could see the dust motes flying through the air in the pitch blackness, could see every little crack and spider web along the walls of the room.

"Damon?" Bella knew he was there. She could see in the dark now. Her throat was raw and hurt. Her head pounded, and her stomach rumbled. She was _so hungry._

Damon's hand touched Bella's hand and she gasped at the feel of his skin on her now extremely sensitive skin. She could feel every little fragment of his against hers. It was overwhelming. Bella jumped across the room, crashing through the door of a closet and falling against the empty wall of it, hangers and dust falling down on her like rain. The door of the closet fell to the ground off its hinges with a thud on the dirtily carpeted floor.

Damon stood, palms up, as if approaching someone on the ledge of a ten-story building. "I know; it's overwhelming."

Bella looked around the room, constantly being distracted by something.

"Just let me-"

"Ugh!" she screamed, covering her hears. "So loud!"

Damon was in front of her, touching her cheeks in comfort. "Bella," he whispered, "you can still back out."

She eyed him in confusion.

"You're not a vampire yet. Remember when I told you about my history in the car? You have to feed off a human first to complete the change. You still have a choice. Remember that."

Bella slowly stood up, pieces of wall and wood falling off her shoulders. "I haven't come this far to back out, Damon." She walked past him and out the door into the night.

Damon stared at her, open-mouthed and shocked at her bravery. Bella poked her head around the corner of the door of the motel room and smiled at Damon, her eyes shining in the light of the moon. "Coming?"

Damon got to his feet, brushing pieces of wood off his shirt. "Where are we going?"

"I need to kill someone to change, don't I?"

"You're okay with killing people?" Damon asked in surprise.

"I'm starving. I'd eat anything."

"Where were you three months ago?" Damon laughed, remembering his days of terrorizing the humans of Mystic Falls. Damon grabbed Bella's hand in his. "Let's go, then."

Bella smiled back and they shot off into the night like bullets.

Elena suddenly felt herself swim into consciousness. The feeling was foreign – not the same as the feeling of waking up in the morning after a dreamless sleep. It was more like a rebirth. She was completely new. Nothing was the same, she knew that for sure.

Elena's eyes snapped open and she gasped, gagging on the amount of hunger she felt in her stomach. Stefan had described this feeling to her, but she had never imagined it would feel this…powerfully demanding. Her stomach growled voraciously, the sound so loud to her new ears. Elena looked around the room she was in and saw a boy sitting in a chair in the dark corner of the room she was in. With her new eyes, Elena saw that it was Edward.

"Edward?" Elena said. "What are you doing here?"

Edward stood and was at Elena's side in a second. When vampires moved, Elena could now see each of their movements – not like how it was before, a blur of motion.

"Aro wanted me to feed you when you awoke." Edward held out a see-through bag of sloshing red liquid.

Elena sat up and yanked her wrists and ankles from the cuffs that had restrained her human body down. She swallowed thickly, trying to keep her hunger at bay.

"Tell him he can eat it himself. I'm going to my room," Elena said, shoving past Edward.

Edward ran to the door, blocking Elena from going. "You are aware that if you don't feed in the course of 24 hours, you'll die, right?"

Elena took a deep breath through her mouth and raised her chin. "That's what I'm hoping for, Edward."

Edward's eyes widened. "Suicide is your brilliant plan? Elena, just drink the stupid blood!" Edward shouted.

Elena took the bag from Edward's hands and threw it across the room. The bag exploded and blood splattered across the white walls.

"I won't let them do this to me. They can't force me to drink the blood," Elena said through barred teeth.

"Technically they can-"

"Well I'll leave before they do this to me. I'm half a vampire now. I can get out."

"Get out and die? Elena, be reasonable. Please, just drink it, and then you can do all the escaping you'd like," Edward tried feebly.

"This has nothing to do with you. I'd appreciate it if you'd tell Aro I drank it and let me die. Now move out of my way." Elena shoved Edward to the side, crashing him into the wall so it left a dent.

Edward quickly got to his feet and watched her strut down the hallway, head high, shoulders set. "Where are you going?" he shouted.

"To find Stefan," she replied.

Bella and Damon stood in the shadows cast by the trees, watching as smiling, drunk teenagers meandered around the woods. They were having some sort of party with a big bonfire in the middle. Bella could hear their pulses from here. It made her skin crawl, her head pound, her fangs slowly, painfully, emerge from her gums for the first time. She looked up at Damon and saw he had been watching her.

"Are you sure you want to kill humans, Bella?" Damon asked in a whisper so no one would hear.

Bella looked back at the teenagers, the people she used to be. But she wasn't that anymore. But these humans didn't deserve to die…

Bella took off running. Her feet almost flew off the ground with the speed she was running at. She made no noise as she ran. She was like a ghost – invisible and unknown.

What would Charlie think? What would she tell him now? Or Renee? Would she be able to go home ever again?

Suddenly she was shoved to the ground by something as hard as a rock. She skidded against the dirty earth, her body leaving a big dent in the ground. Bella could tell by the scent that it was Damon. He flipped her over and was straddling her waist, holding her wrists above her head.

"You're regretting this, aren't you?" he said, looking at her with those penetrating, blue eyes.

Bella stared up at him and shook her head. She wasn't regretting her decision to become a vampire – she was just afraid. She was afraid of losing herself.

"Remember you said I'd never be the same before you changed me?" Bella whispered, tears slipping from her eyes.

Damon's brow furrowed and he nodded.

"Does that mean you don't like me anymore?" she asked so quietly she knew if Damon wasn't a vampire he wouldn't have heard her.

Damon's whole face was wiped away from confusion and irritation to surprise and worry. Damon's hand cupped Bella's cheek and he smiled at her, making his blue eyes spring out laugh lines at the corners, the ones she loved.

"I'll always like you, Bella – no matter what you are. You're still you, just a more…durable you."

Bella smiled and laughed through her tears, feeling ridiculous as she wiped under her eyes. "What is with me? Before I was focused on killing people, and now I want nothing more than to just lie in a ball and cry."

Damon released Bella's wrists and held a hand out to help her up. Bella noticed that Damon didn't let go of her hand even when she was standing. She also noticed that she didn't mind it.

"It's the vampire sensitivity. Everything is heightened when you're a vampire; hate, sadness, guilt…love." Damon averted his eyes and Bella stared at him with a raised eyebrow. "You need to eat, Bella. I suggest humans. Don't be like Stefan. You have to learn how to control yourself while you're young."

Bella took a deep breath and the scent of human blood swam through her nose and into her mind, jumbling up all of her coherent thoughts.

"Okay," she thought she said, but she wasn't sure – her mind was too distracted to care. Her hand tightened around Damon's and she yanked him with her, tugging him along through the woods. Bella stopped with Damon at the fringe of the trees again, her fangs popping out, pressing painfully against her lips. "Just one," Bella whispered, eyeing a drunken girl lying face down on the ground by herself.

"Just one," Damon agreed.

Bella slowly let her fingers slide away from Damon's, like when you tried to grab water. She shot through the trees, invisible to the eyes of human's. Damon watched cautiously, and proudly as Bella kept her word. She only took the one girl, and then returned back to the trees with Damon. Damon grinned at her and Bella smiled back, both of their fangs out. The girl was unconscious, and Bella was glad. Killing humans wasn't that appealing to her – just the blood was the only thing she wanted, not the "thrill of the kill."

Bella held the girl to her, her back to Bella's chest. Bella pushed the girl's hair to one side of her shoulder, pressing her nose to the girl's pulse point. She took in a deep breath and sighed in content. Human blood smelled so good. The scent was indescribable.

"You're sure, right, Bella? You want this? This is your last chance to back out," Damon reminded her.

Bella looked up at him. "I'm sure."

Damon and her stared at each other for a long time, until Damon finally broke the staring contest with a nod. "Okay," he said.

Bella opened her mouth, allowing her fangs to press against the breakable flesh of the human girl's neck. She pressed down without much pressure at all, and suddenly blood was pooling into her mouth. Bella gasped and sucked it in, her eyes wide, her hands squeezing the girl to her tightly. The girl made a quiet moan, but didn't move or open her eyes.

Damon looked back at the human teenagers, but they didn't seem to notice at all that their friend was missing. Bella sucked and sucked until nothing came out. She had drunken her dry. She released the girl and she fell to the ground with a dull thump at Bella's feet, dead. Bella slowly let her eyes travel up to Damon. Damon stared at her, at the blood coating her lips and chin, remembering the first time he had seen Bella Swan at that store she used to work at. She seemed completely different – but not in a bad way. The girl he had first met was deader than a vampire could ever be. Bella's heart may have not been beating now, but she was more alive than ever.

"Congratulations, Bella. You're a vampire now," Damon said with a crooked grin.

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**I know this one was short, but there's a lot that's going on right now that has to be condensed. **

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	15. She Can't Get It

**I am so sorry. You guys probably hate me for the giant wait. Okay, so, my computer doesn't work. It does this new thing where it goes to start-up repair, and won't turn on unless I delete everything off my computer. So, everything I had written for this story got deleted. And everytime I tried to rewrite it, start-up repair would come again and delete it. So now I have to write it on Google Docs, and I just didn't feel like rewriting everything because I was pissed off that all I wrote for this fic, and all my other individual stories of my own work got deleted and were gone forever. Finally, I wrote this. And it sucks, but I really needed to give you guys SOMETHING. So, if anyone knows how the fuck to fix this start-up repair bullshit, I'd really appreciate it.**

**And sorry the paragraphs are all fucked up. It's the google docs format T_T**

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Elena ran down the corridors of the Volturi palace, not having to worry about anyone catching her. She had a plan: get Stefan, and run away from here. Never come back. Never go to Mystic Falls, just stay together forver. She'd drink the blood with Stefan to complete the change, despite the fact that she didn't want to become a vampire at all. But she had to. It was either that, or die. And if Elena died, they'd kill Stefan. She was only continuing for him.

And she knew she only had a day until she died.  
Elena stopped at a fork in the hallway. Left or right? Which would lead to Stefan? Elena took a deep breath, every scent assaulting her overpowering senses. The air was musty and dank. Of course it was with the ancient vampires lurking in the place. She caught Stefan's scent in the air – faint, but still there. Stefan's smell was indescribable. Elena couldn't put her finger on it. But the first thought that came to mind when smelling his scent was warmth. Stefan was good and kind and warm, and if those adjectives could be personified, it would be Stefan's smell.  
Elena turned her head at the smell and saw it was to the left. She pushed forward, zooming through the empty hallway and hoping to God that Stefan would be alone. Elena remembered all of the werewolves that guarded the palace and felt her heart drop. How would she get out with all of them there? Edward was right. She'd never get out.  
"I know I'm right."  
Elena turned and gasped.  
Edward stood there, leaning against the wall of the end of the left hallway, his arms crossed over his chest. He smiled sympathetically at her.  
"You know, that mind reading thing of yours is really creepy," Elena hissed. "Stay out of my mind."  
"It's kind of hard to. Your thoughts are pretty loud," Edward said, walking over to her, a smug smile on his disturbingly beautiful face.  
"I'll try to quiet them down," Elena said sarcastically and turned to continue her quest to find Stefan.  
"I know where he is," Edward told her, "and he's not that way."  
Elena growled and turned to Edward, grabbing him by the neck and smashing him against the wooden walls. She felt her eyes fill with whatever human blood was left in her, her fangs popped out, pressing painfully out of her gums.  
"This is not a game!" Elena snarled. "Tell me what you know, or so help me, I'll rip your stupid, sparkly head off!"  
Edward just smiled and shoved her off him. "I'd like to see you try."  
Elena's lips quivered and she suddenly burst into tears. She fell to the floor in a hopeless heap, crying obnoxiously loudly. She didn't know why she was being so overly dramatic about everything. Everything felt sharper, especially the pain in her heart.  
All she knew was that she wanted Stefan. He always had just the right words for Elena. He always knew how to make things better.  
Edward heard her thoughts in his mind and sighed, frowning. Edward was so drawn to Elena because he felt as if they were the same. He could relate to her. Elena had tried to push away Stefan because she felt like he wanted someone else, that she wasn't good enough. Edward deserted Bella because he _knew _he wasn't good enough. Bella needed someone better. And he was okay with that. Maybe he just wasn't meant for love. It would seem that way.  
Edward knelt down beside Elena and patted her shoulder. "I'll bring you to him, but I must warn you, Katherine's been watching him all day."  
Elena felt her nose flare. Katherine. She wanted nothing more than to rip Katherine's innards out of her body like Aro had grotesquely done to her only a few hours ago.  
"I don't care," Elena said. She looked up at Edward's golden eyes. "Take me to her."

Edward sighed and rose from the floor, holding a hand out to Elena. "As you wish," he complied.

Elena took his hand and rose, taking a deep breath. Stefan's scent was even stronger now. Elena's brow furrowed and she released Edward's hand, sniffing at the air like a blood hound. She stopped at the wall at the end of the hallway. A dead end. But how? She could smell him so strongly, as if his blood was being spilt-

"Please!" Her vampire ears picked up the faint sound of Stefan's screeching voice. "Just kill me!"

Elena's eyes widened and she clawed at the wall, leaving dents in it from her razor sharp nails. "Stefan!" she screamed.

Edward was suddenly behind her. "It's a secret passageway," he explained, "to the cellar in this old place. I don't know how to get in without breaking the-"

Elena let out a fierce growl and punched her fist through the wall. Edward's eyes widened. Elena continued pounding at the wall until she could fit through, and when she did, she sprinted into the darkness. As she was running, it felt as if her feet weren't even touching the ground. She could tell, though, that she was going deeper and deeper into the ground. Her ears popped from the change in altitude, and she could hear Edward's lithe footsteps not far behind her. He was fast, Elena noticed.

Elena stopped in the doorway of the cellar and her eyes widened. Stefan was laid out on what looked like an operating table, his wrists cuffed in rope soaked in vervain. He had wounds all over his naked chest, and there were stakes sticking out of every part of his chest, just missing his heart. Katherine stood next to the table, Felix on the other side. Stefan looked at Elena and his eyes widened as well.

Stefan couldn't believe she was here. He smiled, despite the excruciating pain. "Elena…" he murmured, too dizzy to form a longer sentence.  
Elena smiled, tears dripping from her eyes. "It's okay, Stefan. I'm going to get you out of here." Edward was suddenly behind Elena. She could feel the coolness of his body radiating from him in slow waves.  
Katherine had Stefan's blood splattered all over her. She glared at Elena and swiped blood from her forehead. "I see you've completed the change," she said, looking Elena up and down.  
Elena stiffened. They didn't know? She could fool them. If Elena couldn't get out alive with Stefan, then she'd die here with him. She wouldn't change for anyone else but him.  
"I have," Elena said, raising her chin.  
Edward looked at her.  
Katherine stabbed the stake she held in her hand into a free spot in Stefan's stomach. Stefan yelled, trying to mask the sound between his clenched teeth. His chest rose and feel, the wooden stakes still inside him, moving along with him. He looked at Elena, and she had never seen such pain in his eyes.  
_I should have never moved back to Mystic Falls. I shouldn't have brought her into this world…_  
Edward looked at Stefan as his thoughts ran through his mind, but Stefan didn't take his eyes off Elena.  
"Why are you here?" Katherine asked, slowly moving around the table, her hands behind her back. "Why are you trying to save Stefan? You don't even love him."  
Elena hissed, and widened her eyes at the sound. She sounded like…a vampire.  
"You don't know what I feel!" Elena snarled. "I love Stefan." She looked at Stefan. "I love you."  
Stefan smiled, and then coughed, blood splattering from his mouth.  
Elena tried to run forward to him, but then Felix's brick-like arms shot out, shooting her back against the stone walls of the cellar.  
Katherine started laughing, shaking her head at Elena. "You're pathetic. I don't care what Aro wants from you. I'm going to kill you myself. My duties to him are done. I owe him nothing."  
Felix looked at Katherine in confusion. "What?"  
Katherine grinned and turned to Felix. "I'm done working for you glittering bastards." Katherine revealed what was hidden behind her back – a lighter. She lit Felix on fire, the one way to kill a vampire of both of their kinds. Katherine ripped his head off just before his whole body went ablaze, and then stepped back quickly as he became a live torch, before the fire could touch her as well.  
Elena eye's widened as she watched the room catch fire. Then she looked to Stefan, stuck on the metal table. She ran to him, jumping over the flames, and then was quickly at his side.  
"No, Elena," he coughed out. Smoke filled the air, making Elena's eyes water as she tried to see. "Go away from here! You'll die!"  
Elena sobbed, tearing pouring from her eyes, but this time not from the fire. "I can't leave you here, Stefan!" she yelled over the crackling fire. Elena reached out to Stefan's ropes, but then quickly pulled away as the vervain burned her fingers. "No, no, no, no…" Elena kept chanting as the room grew brighter with fire. She looked behind her and saw Edward cornered by the flames. "Edward, please, help me!" she screamed.  
Edward ran through the flames. He couldn't be killed unless his body was ripped apart first, so he was safe. Edward patted the flames from his clothes and came to Elena. "What do you need me to do?" he asked her.  
She pointed to the ropes. "Untie him – quickly!"  
Edward's hand shot out and untied him in a blur of motion. He was done, and had Stefan in his arms.  
"Go!" Edward yelled.  
Elena nodded and ran up the steps and back to the hall. Edward ran out behind her and set Stefan onto the floor. Him and Elena ripped out the stakes from Stefan's body. To Elena's alarm, Stefan made no noise as they ripped the stakes out.  
"Stefan?" she called.  
He didn't move.  
"Stefan!"  
His eyes fluttered, but he didn't open them. That was good enough for Elena. She pulled him to her chest and cried, her tears dripping into his hair.  
Edward looked up as Aro's thoughts assaulted his mind.  
_Fire? In _my _palace?_  
"Elena," Edward whispered, too quietly for a human to hear.  
She looked up at him.  
"Don't forget to pretend to be a vampire," he said very quickly, and then rose to his feet right when Aro rounded the corner.  
"Young friends!" Aro said. "Is there a fire?"  
Edward nodded. "Yes. Katherine started it in the cellar. She killed one of your guards and tried to kill us as well."  
Aro's dark red eyes widened. "And where is she now?"  
Elena clutched Stefan closer to her as she felt his weak breaths against her neck. She glared fiercely at Aro, at the thing that had killed her.  
"She's gone," Elena spit. "It looks like your plan won't work out as smoothly as you thought." Her nostrils flared and she wanted nothing more than to run over and rip Aro's damn head off. She wanted to kill him. And Katherine. Kill them both and mash up their bodies until they were nothing more than a pile of dust.  
Aro stared at Elena with a blank expression, and then his face broke out into a smile.  
"No problem," he said. "Katherine can't get out of here. Don't you worry, Elena." He waved his hands at the two vampire guards that stood behind him. "Put that fire out."  
They bowed. "Yes, sir," they said in unison, and then disappeared back into the cellar at the speed of light.  
Aro looked at Elena with a huge smile on his withered face. Elena wanted nothing more than to jump up and rip his head off. She felt her fangs pop out again and pressed her lips together, shoving them back in.  
"I see you've completed the change," Aro said.  
Elena was silent.  
"No hard feelings, I hope," Aro continued, "it was nothing personal, my dear. This is all for the better of the world. Now, we can finally kill Klaus and create the new breed of vampires - an amazingly powerful hybrid of two powerful species." Aro clapped his hands. "On the full moon you two will mate. On a full moon, it only takes an hour for each newborn hybrid vampire to be born. Aren't you excited? You'll be parents soon!"  
Elena and Edward stared at him in disgust.  
Aro sighed. "Well, have a fun two days, young ones. That's how long until it's the next full moon." And with that, Aro disappeared.  
Edward said nothing and picked Stefan off the floor. "Shall I bring him to your room?" Edward asked Elena. He glanced down at Stefan. "He really needs to feed, as well."  
But Elena wasn't thinking of Stefan right now. She was thinking of herself, for once.  
"Edward, what should I do? I don't know if I should change. I don't... If I do, I'll have no choice. I'll have to make the children."  
"What happened to your plan of escape?" Edward asked.  
Elena shook her head, pushing her hair away from her face. "Stefan will never heal in time. And I only have less than 24 hours to decide to complete the change, or let myself die."  
Edward took a deep breath and rested a comforting hand on Elena's shoulder. "I'm really sorry it came to this, Elena," he murmured, and then disappeared, heading to Elena's room with Stefan on his shoulder.

Bella had never felt better. She felt so powerful, like she could do anything in the world, and no one could stop her. Was this what being high was like? Bella attacked Damon, pushing herself on him like some animal in heat on the nature channel. Damon instantly responded, wrapping his arms around her and yanking her close. Their mouths were all over each other, biting and kissing and sucking, blood from the human girl Bella had drunk smearing all over Damon's perfect skin.  
Bella smashed him against one of the many trees around them. They barreled through the trees, crashing to the ground without a scratch on them. Her fingers twisted into his hair, yanking his face closer to hers. She pressed herself against him and they both groaned loudly, both definitely like animals in heat.  
Bella suddenly remembered when she had asked Damon if he would take her virginity, and he had refused. She wondered if now, in the middle of the night, with the moon as their light on the forest floor he would. She wanted him to. She wanted him more than blood. She could _feel _that he wanted her. And Bella certainly knew her body wanted him. Everything ached for him. His touch was like a drug.  
"Damon," Bella panted, even though she no longer needed to breathe.  
"Mmhmm?" he mumbled as he kissed and sucked her neck.  
"I was wondering...would you-"  
_Ring. Ring._  
Damon's brow furrowed as he felt his pocket vibrate. No one ever called him. He pulled his phone out and looked at the caller. He didn't recognize the number.  
"Hello?" Damon grumbled, irritated.  
"Damon, it's Alice."  
Bella could hear with her new ears and her eyes widened. What had happened now?  
Damon sat up, getting off Bella. Bella was a little pissed. The moment was just totally ruined.  
"What is it?"  
"I had a vision. Whatever is going to happen to Elena and Edward, it's going to happen in two days. My family and I are at the airport. A flight to Italy leaves in an hour. I know Bella just completed the change, so I need you guys to get on this flight. We don't have much time." And then she hung up.

Damon pocketed his phone and looked at Bella. "I assume you heard that?"  
She nodded.  
Damon smiled and wiped all the excess blood off of Bella's face. "Then we better get going," he said, and slid Bella's day walking ring onto her finger.  
Bella guessed she wouldn't be losing her virginity tonight.

* * *

**So what'd you guys think? Review? Please? You still with me? :/**

**Also, if anyone knows how to get rid of start-up repair when you start your dell windows laptop, I'd love you forever. (never buy a dell laptop; they suck)**


	16. Final Future

Chapter 16: Final Future

Bella stood next to Damon in the airport, panicking as the humans rushed past her, their scents slamming into her face over and over. She felt her fangs slowly inch out from her gums and quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

Damon glanced down at Bella humorously. "You're doing great for a newbie," he promised.

Bella took a deep breath, inhaled all of the different scents, trying to get used to the incessant hunger which tore at her throat. She could hear everyone's heartbeats, like millions of drums pounding in her ears.

"They all smell _so good_," she whispered to herself, her eyes still shut.

Damon laughed. "Not really. You're just not used to the smell of human blood. You'll become pickier as time goes on."

Bella took one last deep breath from her nose, and then slowly expelled the air from her mouth. She was calm. Her fangs retracted.

"I'm good," she whispered, nodding to herself.

"I knew you'd be," a tinkling voice said from behind them.

Bella and Damon turned to see Alice and the rest of the Cullens standing behind them. No one had any luggage, despite the fact that they were all travelling to another country. Bella wondered if the humans would notice that.

"Hi, Alice," Bella said, a little awkwardly. She hadn't forgiven the Cullens yet for what they had put her through. She wasn't sure if she ever _would_ forgive them.

"We don't have much time," Alice said. "Edward and Elena only have two more days until they have to complete the ceremony."

Bella and Damon still weren't entirely sure why the Volturi had taken them all, but from what Alice had told them, it was clear that they were in trouble.

Edward laid Stefan down onto Elena's bed. He yanked the steaks from his chest. Stefan was so still, Edward wasn't entirely sure he was even alive. He paused, focusing on Stefan's mental voice in his mind, to see if it was even still there….

_She's a…vampire. My fault…. Life is ruined…just like Damon. My fault. I did this._

Edward sighed. Like always, he felt like he could relate to the guilt which not only constantly resounded in Stefan's mind, but Elena's as well.

_Stefan is hurt because of me. I have to get us out of here. I don't deserve to live. I don't want to be this monster…_

Edward cut her off abruptly. He squeezed his eyes shut, and sighed, shaking his head. It was hard for him to listen to other people's thoughts, because with their thoughts came their very vivid emotions. Sometimes, he thought of Bella, and how he couldn't read her thoughts. How nice that had been. He had always been able to feel normal around her – human. He missed that. He missed _her_. He wondered what she would think if she knew this trouble he was currently in. Would she care? Had she already moved on with her life?

"Ugh," Stefan moaned.

Edward looked down, suddenly pulled from his musings. "Are you all right?" Edward asked.

Stefan slowly sat up, confused for a moment, from what Edward could gather from his jumbled thoughts. As soon as his mind cleared itself, Elena's face broke through to the forefront of his mind. In a flash of movement that only eyes such as Edward's could see, Stefan jumped up from the bed and ran out into the hall in search of Elena.

"Elena!" Stefan called. He was in a panic. He had heard that Elena had been changed. He had failed her. She had become the very thing which she hated most in the world.

Elena suddenly materialized in front of Stefan, too fast for his eyes to catch since he was so weak. She had tears in her eyes, her lips pressed together to keep from quivering. She opened her mouth to speak, but instead let out a defeated sob. She fell against him, finally letting herself fall apart.

"Stefan," she sobbed. "I-it's over."

Stefan encircled his arms around her, resting his chin on her head. "I'm so sorry they did this to you."

"It's not done yet," she whispered almost too quietly for him to hear.

"What do you mean?" he asked in confusion.

Elena looked up at him. "I haven't completed the change. I lied. I haven't fed yet and…and I don't know if I can, Stefan."

Stefan hadn't thought of this. What if Elena didn't feed? What if she…died?

"But you'll die," he whispered, his green eyes wide.

Elena's lips began to shake. "I know."

Stefan's eyes were that of a crazed man's, a man about to lose everything. "But you-…I can't- Elena, no-"

She silenced his babbling with her urgent lips. She threw herself so hard against him that his back crashed against the wall of the hallway. Stefan grunted. He pulled Elena up as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Stefan decided that whatever Elena chose…he would accept. He wouldn't force her into his world if she didn't want to be in it.

Stefan ran into the room across from Elena's, which happened to be Edward's. They fell onto Edward's made bed, kissing and panting loudly as they tore at each others clothes. Elena hadn't been with Stefan like this in what felt like years. She felt tears pour from her eyes as she realized it may be her last time – her last time either human or alive, to touch Stefan in this way. She began crying. Stefan kissed down her neck, across her chest, on the delicate skin of her stomach.

"I love you, I love you, I love you…" he whispered against her heated, human skin.

Elena tangled her fingers in his blood encrusted hair. She didn't care though. The only thing on her mind now was Stefan with her in this moment.

"I love you, too," she sobbed.

She didn't let herself think of Jenna, of Jeremy, of Bonnie, and all of her other friends back in Mystic Falls. She let herself believe that they were happy without her. They'd wonder where she was of course, but after awhile, they'd move on. Jenna would get a new boyfriend and get married and have kids, finally growing up. Jeremy would graduate high school and make some real friends. He wouldn't be so sad all the time. He'd meet a girl who would stay in his life, who wouldn't die like Anna and Vicki. Both of them would never have to be a part of this horrifying world she would die in.

Elena shook the thoughts from her mind and gave in to the pleasure Stefan's lips made on her skin. She pushed him up and pulled the rest of his clothes off until they were skin-to-skin. They made love, and Elena, for that moment, didn't think of her impending death.

Edward awkwardly stood out on the balcony of Elena's room. He could hear everything – both their words which they spoke aloud to each other and their mental thoughts. He tried ignoring it, but then again, he could hear the noises. He shook his head, focusing on the scene in front of him. The wolves paced around the Volturi castle dutifully. Edward wondered if maybe Elena had been right in considering suicide. Edward fluidly jumped onto the railing of the balcony, landing with not so much as a stagger. His arms were out at his sides, like wings beginning to spread for flight. He knew if he let himself fall he'd survive, but maybe the wolves would rip him apart….

_EDWARD!_

Edward gasped in shock, nearly falling over. He righted himself and jumped back down onto the balcony, not believing what he was hearing in his head

_Edward, I'm in Italy! We're coming for you! Don't jump! _

It was Alice's thoughts.

_We're going to save you! Look:_

Alice showed him two visions. In the one scenario, his family saved him and Elena, and the Volturi were defeated. In the other, they all were killed and he and Elena made the hybrid children. It all depended upon one decision, a decision which wasn't made yet.

Edward wasted no time to run into what was once his room. Stefan and Elena were in the middle of…reuniting, when Edward rudely interrupted.

Elena gasped, yanking the red bed sheets over her and Stefan.

"What are you doing in here?!" she demanded.

"I'm sorry," Edward said, looking at the floor, "but I have something urgent to tell you both."

"It couldn't wait ten more minutes?" Stefan muttered.

Edward shook his head. "I'm sorry but we're short on time as it is."

Elena rolled her eyes. "What is it, Edward?"

Edward met Elena's stare. "You have to complete the change, Elena," he whispered.

Elena looked at him in shock. "What are you talking about? I don't have to do anything."

"My sister – Alice – she sent me a vision. She can see the future, like how I can read minds. She told me that if you don't change, and you let yourself die, we will _all _die. But, if you go through with the change, there's a chance that we can defeat the Volturi. They're coming for us – my family. They're going to save us."

Elena shook her head furiously, her hair flying back and forth. "No, no, no! I- I already decided. I-I want to die!"

Edward stared at her gravely. "You hadn't decided, Elena. If you had, the future would be set." He came to their bedside. "Do you really want to die here?"

Elena didn't respond.

"We both know you don't," Edward whispered. "I can read your mind, remember."

Elena growled furiously, yanking a sheet up with her as she paced across the room. "I don't want this!" she cried. "It was never what I wanted!"

"None of us wanted this for any of us. But it happened. You have to make a decision, Elena. We can still all make it out."

Elena looked at Edward, desperate. Tears spilled from her eyes.

_The future is set, Edward! _Alice's thoughts ran through his mind. _We're coming for you guys!_

"I don't have a choice, do I?" Elena whispered.


End file.
